Taking Control
by Armbar Nation
Summary: Story 3 of 4 and sequel to All Grown Up Now. How will the McMahon family move on from the troubling events with John Cena?
1. Chapter 1

Stephanie McMahon showed the detectives out of her house and closed the door. She returned to the living room feeling dazed, unable to take in what had just happened. John was dead? And they thought she had something to do with it? What the hell was going on? As she walked into the living and slowly sat down again on the couch Paul walked in and closed the door. He was clearly angry but he kept his voice down, obviously trying to prevent the girls from hearing him from upstairs, "Steph, you had better be about to tell me that this wasn't you?"

Stephanie struggled to focus on her husband as her head began to spin, "What?"

Vince joined in now and he was equally as angry, "Don't give us 'what?' you swear to us that this wasn't you?"

Nikki jumped up, "Will you two shut the hell up? Look at her for god's sake." She sat next to Stephanie and held her, "it's obvious she didn't have anything to do with this, what the hell is wrong with you?"

"I want to hear it," Paul insisted. "Swear it Steph." His wife looked up at him and he immediately felt guilty. He could see in her eyes that this was not her. He knew how to read his wife's emotions and facial expressions after all of these years.

"I swear I didn't know anything about this. How could I?" He gestured to Nikki and she moved out of the way so that he could sit next to Stephanie, "I'm sorry honey but you must realise how this looks?"

Vince apologised too, "I'm sorry Steph." Stephanie did not reply and she still looked dazed. Nikki had an idea, "Vince why don't we take the girls out somewhere for an hour or so. Paul and Steph need to talk." Vince nodded and asked Paul, "Shall we do that?"

"Yes, thank you guys. I'll come help you get them ready though or you will be up there all afternoon. Honey are you okay here?" Stephanie nodded and Paul followed Nikki and Vince out of the room. They went upstairs and told the girls they were going to spend an hour or two with Granddad Vince and Grandma Nikki. The children seemed excited at the idea and did not make any fuss about getting ready. Aurora was the first to be ready and she charged downstairs. Paul followed Murphy down the stairs and Vince led Vaughn down by the hand with Nikki trailing behind.

As Paul got to the bottom of the stairs Aurora walked out of the living room and reported, "Dad, mommy is crying."

Paul tried to come up with something quickly, "Mommy isn't well darling, I'll make sure she's okay by the time you get home."

Aurora shook her head, "You won't, it's like before."

Paul bent down to her, "What do you mean?"

"Like before, she doesn't say anything." Paul was sure that his heart had stopped beating. Not again. It could not be happening again. "Vince, Nikki, just go." He noticed the shocked expressions on their faces, Nikki seemed to be particularly upset. He hurried into the living room and closed the door and saw what he had been dreading, Stephanie was sitting with her legs tucked up under her chin and she was crying. It was exactly how he had found her on the kitchen floor the day Linda had died. He sat next to her, not wanting to touch her in case that made things worse, "Steph?" He got no response so he tried again, "Steph, talk to me please? What are you crying about? There's nothing to be afraid of."

Stephanie looked at him and he saw this was different from before. Her voice contained immense relief rather than depression or fear, "I'm free now."

"Why are you sitting like this? Why are you crying?" She looked confused, dazed almost, "I don't know. It's over... it's all... it's all over."

Paul took hold of her, holding as tightly as he could without it being uncomfortable for her. "I know honey, it's all over now. You don't have to worry about John Cena any more." She started sobbing but Paul was not worried now as he knew this was relief not despair. He held her for several minutes until she was able to stop crying. He did not know or pay attention to how long it was, he just sat there holding his wife as he knew that was what she needed from him.

"Do you think they really believe it was me?" She asked timidly.

"It doesn't matter what they think, it wasn't you so they can't possibly trace anything back to you can they? They'll poke around and ask questions but you didn't do it so you have nothing to fear."

"But who did do it? And why?" He lifted her head gently and wiped away the remaining tears from her cheeks, "I don't care and neither should you. We have our own family to worry about."

By the time Vince and Nikki returned with the girls Stephanie had managed to get control of herself and take a shower to freshen up. When they walked into the house she was the first to greet them, "I'm sorry about before. I don't know what came over me, relief I guess. Aurora come here baby."

Aurora walked over and as Stephanie bent down they hugged, "Are you okay mommy?"

"Yes baby, I just felt a bit strange before but daddy made it better."

"Are you sure? I thought it was like before?"

Stephanie kissed her forehead, "No baby, not like before. Mommy has never been so happy." The other two girls walked over and joined in the hug. The most relieved person to hear that was Nikki although she tried to hide it to some extent. For the last hour she had been panicking about what she had caused to happen. The last thing she needed was for Stephanie to fall apart over John's death. Now that she saw Stephanie with her kids and heard what she had just said Nikki was certain, she had nothing to feel guilty about at all.


	2. Chapter 2

As Vince drove them home Nikki was lost in her thoughts. Things seemed to have worked out okay with Stephanie in the end but Nikki still had problems. She had understandably been thinking about them all day as there was still a lot to do to make sure she got away with what she had done. Firstly she had to make a call to find out how much money she owed. She obviously could not make the call from her own phone. She would have to either buy another cheap cell phone and then destroy it as she had before or she could use a pay phone. She could do that tomorrow morning before they flew out for Raw. She could say that she was going out to buy a sandwich or something. The second problem she had was more serious. Where was she going to get the money? Even if she had enough there was no way she could take money from her account to pay with. Soon enough when the detectives found nothing that traced back to Stephanie they would begin looking at everyone else and if they found a large cash withdrawal from her account she would be done. So where to get the money?

She just could not think of a way. Desperately willing her mind to come up with something she decided to take a shower when they got home, hoping that it would clear her head and allow her to think more clearly. She was usually good at that. She turned on the water and undressed. As she did so she happened to glance at herself in the mirror and there it was. There was the answer. She moved closer to the mirror and stared at it as it gleamed. The necklace that Stephanie had bought her was obviously worth a fortune. She could pawn it for cash! But how would she explain the fact that she no longer had it? She stepped into the shower and as the hot water rushed over her she came up with a plan. It would be a real shame to lose the necklace as she adored it but would she trade it for Stephanie's peace of mind? Damn right she would. That was more important to her for sure.

* * *

The next morning Nikki had deliberately skipped breakfast. She had needed an excuse to leave the office to buy food. She walked into Stephanie's office and asked, "Steph I'm going to go buy a sandwich, I missed breakfast. Would you like anything?"

"No thank you. Don't take too long please, I have something I need you to do."

"Right." Nikki hurried out of the office and left the building. She went and bought a sandwich and on the way back to the office she stopped at a pay phone. She dialled the number she had memorised and again did not have to wait long for an answer, "It's Nikki."

The reply was, "I did what you asked."

She tried not to let nervousness show in her voice, "I know. What do I owe you?"

Her contact told her the amount. He had been right, it was expensive. "You do have that much in cash?" The voice tested.

"Yes, of course I do," Nikki insisted defensively, "But I need something else from you."

"What now?" The voice asked impatiently.

"There's no way I can get to wherever you are without my absence from work being noticed. I need you to come to Stamford on Wednesday. Obviously I'll pay extra."

There was silence which presumably was thinking time. Eventually a decision was reached, "Okay, I'll come over there but you're right, you will pay extra." He told her how much and Nikki hoped that she would get enough for the necklace to cover all of this, it was getting seriously expensive fast. She assured her contact that she had the money and told him where and when to meet her on Wednesday. With that she hung up hurried back to the office before anyone missed her.

* * *

Nikki was in the second match on Raw which had worked out perfectly for her. As she walked back into the women's locker room it was time to put her plan into action. She had left her locker closed but deliberately had not locked it. She walked over to it and after making sure no one was looking, which was not hard as only Paige was in there with her, she quickly took the necklace from where she had left it in her jacket pocket and stuffed it down her top. It was time to begin. "What the hell?" She exclaimed loudly.

Paige looked over, attention attracted by Nikki's angry tone, "What's wrong Nikki?"

Nikki opened the door of the locker, "My locker is open. Someone's opened it."

"What?" Paige began to walk over.

Nikki put a hand into the jacket pocket as it hung on the inside of the locker's door, "No! I don't believe it!"

Paige had arrived now, again she asked, "What?"

"I don't believe this. This can't be happening." Nikki frantically checked the jacket's pockets again.

"Is something missing?"

"My necklace. I left it in my jacket. Someone's opened my locker and stolen it!"

Paige looked into the locker, "Are you sure it didn't fall?"

"My jacket is hanging up, how could anything fall from it?" Nikki raged. "Someone's stolen my fucking necklace!"

Paige put a hand on her arm, "Nikki go and take your shower and get changed. Try to calm down a bit. I'll go and fetch Stephanie for you."

It was not what Nikki had planned but it would work, "Okay, thanks Paige." As Paige headed out Nikki took her clothes from the locker and went to take her shower. When she walked back into the locker room fifteen minutes later, now dressed in her suit and with the necklace safely stashed in her pants pocket she saw that Stephanie was in the locker room as were all of the other divas. Stephanie was speaking to them, clearly angry, "I've already said this once. No one leaves this room until that necklace shows up. Whoever has it hand it over to me now and this won't get taken any further."

AJ spoke up and she was also angry but her attention was directed to Nikki, "Nikki you told Stephanie that one of us took your necklace?"

Nikki walked over and stood next to Stephanie and replied defensively, "No, I said someone took it. I have no idea who it was. I walked back in here and my locker was open and the necklace was gone from my jacket." She managed to make herself begin to cry, "Whoever has it please just give it back to me, it has sentimental value to me as well as the value of it."

"Anyone could have taken it," AJ insisted angrily. "This place is empty half of the night, one of the guys or crew could just as easily break into your locker as we could."

Stephanie led Nikki aside and whispered to her, "She's right Nikki, this could have been anyone. I can make an insurance claim on this and get it replaced for you. Please don't cry, okay?"

Nikki nodded and Stephanie turned to address the room. Nikki noticed the reaction of the rest of the women to Stephanie's anger and thought as she had many times before that no matter how long she did this job she would never have that effect on people. "I believe someone in here stole that necklace from Nikki. Not only that, as I bought it for her I consider it to be stealing from me. Whichever one of you this was has brought suspicion on everyone else in this room. You'll all be watched closely from now on and whoever this was will try something like this again and I'll find out who it was. When that happens you're fired and that will be the least of your problems." Stephanie stormed out of the room and slammed the door leaving everyone looking suspiciously at each other, wondering who the thief could be.

Nikki headed out of the locker room to follow Stephanie back to her office. She felt bad that the other women had been made to look guilty but it was the only option that had been available to her to cover for the absence of the necklace. Now all she had to do was pawn it for cash then pay what she owed and she would be in the clear. The more immediate problem was going to be calming Stephanie down. Nikki knew exactly what would be happening right now; Stephanie would be sitting in her office, fuming. Nikki would have to calm her down as they were supposed to be in the ring for a segment in less than an hour. As she approached Stephanie's office she realised that she had been wrong. Stephanie was not sitting and fuming, she was yelling at someone, "I don't care, damn it! I'm going to find out who it was and I'll..."

Nikki walked in and saw that it was Paul who was on the receiving end. He was trying his best to diffuse his wife, "Just calm down, bursting a blood vessel won't help."

Before Stephanie could continue raging Nikki joined forces with Paul, "He's right Steph, calm down."

"Is someone going to explain why I'm the only one who is angry about this?" Stephanie demanded.

"We're all angry Steph but we've got to be in the ring soon and we need to read through our lines, okay?" Nikki's voice was calm, gentle, soothing.

After a few seconds Stephanie nodded, "Go get my dad then."

Paul tried not to grin as Nikki worked her magic on Stephanie, it never failed to impress him how she always managed to calm her down so easily. God knew that he could not do it that easily, not any more. With a shake of the head he said, "I'll get some coffee." He followed Nikki out of the office and when they were a suitable distance away he asked her, "How do you do that? It would have taken me at least ten minutes to get her to calm down like that."

Nikki smiled and shrugged, "She listens to me, we work well together."

"I don't know where we would be without you sometimes Nikki," Paul smiled.

"Neither do I," Nikki breathed, to herself as much as to Paul.


	3. Chapter 3

Curtis Axel and Ryback had just made their entrance for a tag team match when Mr. McMahon's music filled the arena. "What is this now?" Jerry Lawler asked in confusion.

As Vince and Nikki sauntered down the ramp Michael Cole said, "I don't think we're going to see Mr. McMahon and Nikki Bella against Rybaxel. What's going on here?"

"They're in charge of this place Michael," JBL gushed. "They can come out here whenever they want."

Cole sounded annoyed, "You're still going on with this? Everyone knows Stephanie McMahon is in charge of Monday Night Raw."

"It doesn't look like it to me!" JBL insisted as Vince and Nikki entered the ring.

Nikki took a microphone from the ring announcer and barked at the two wrestlers, "Get out of my ring! Now! Out! Get out!" The crowd booed her as the two wrestlers retreated from the ring. She handed the microphone to Vince and he began, "Thank you. Please join me in congratulating Nikki on her win earlier tonight." The crowd booed furiously again. Vince addressed Nikki directly, "You're on quite a run. You beat Natalya tonight and you singlehandedly beat my 'precious daughter' Stephanie last week."

Nikki smiled and nodded as the crowd booed even louder at the blatant lie. Vince continued, "Nikki beat Stephanie so badly that she wasn't even able to show up for Smackdown last Thursday. What about tonight Stephanie? If you're here then get out here, we have a challenge for you."

There was a pause as he waited for a response. A small "Steph!" chant broke out. After a few moments Stephanie's music played and the crowd cheered. Stephanie walked out onto the stage and once her music had stopped she asked, "A challenge 'dad'? Is this another of those matches like last week? You remember, You have Kane come down here and attack my husband who is trying to referee the match and then you hit me from behind with a chair..." She was interrupted by a chant of "Asshole!" directed at Vince. When it died down she continued, "Then what did you do 'dad'? Oh, that's right, you dragged that piece of trash that's standing next to you on top of me and you counted the three yourself. You must be so proud of your amazing 'victory' Nikki?"

As Nikki was about to speak a chant of "Slut!" broke out. She yelled over the top of it, "Look at last week's results 'Stephanie' because when I read them it says Nikki Bella _defeats_ Stephanie McMahon."

"I can't hear a word you're saying because you've got fifteen thousand people calling you a slut!" The crowd loved this and resumed chanting the insult even louder. Stephanie waited for a moment before she said, "Now that we've all established that Nikki, you are indeed a slut and dad you're most definitely an asshole, how about we hear your little challenge?"

Vince sounded pleased with himself as he voiced his idea, "Nikki and I would like to challenge you to a match this Thursday on Smackdown, a mixed tag team match. Our only stipulation is that you cannot team with your husband."

Stephanie laughed, "So you're happy to face me but you're scared of Hunter? How pathetic."

Nikki took Vince's microphone, "It's nothing like that. We just thought it wouldn't be fair for you both to get your asses beaten again and both of you end up in hospital. I mean there's got to be someone to go home to your kids the day after, right?" The crowd booed again as Nikki continued, "So why don't you go back there and try and find someone who is stupid enough to team with you?"

The crowd began to chant "Steph!" to encourage Stephanie to accept. Stephanie said, "I'll go back and look for a partner but you should know Nikki, if anyone ends up in a hospital bed Thursday night I'm going to make sure that it's you."

As Stephanie's music played and she left the stage Cole gleefully anticipated, "Stephanie is going to destroy Nikki Bella on Thursday. I can't wait."

"She won't if she can't find a partner," JBL pointed out smugly. "Who would want to team with Stephanie McMahon?"

"I'll do it myself if no one else will," King mumbled.


	4. Chapter 4

Nikki had hardly slept at all on Tuesday night. She knew that all she had to do was get through Wednesday with no problems and she was in the clear. All she had to do was pawn the necklace for enough money to pay what she owed and then go meet with her old friend and hand over the money. She needed a reason to get out of the office but she already had that figured out ahead of time. She got up from her desk and picked up the carry case for her laptop. The laptop itself was already hidden in her desk. Nikki headed for Stephanie's office. Upon arriving she knocked on the wooden door and walked in, "Steph uh... I'm really sorry but I left my laptop at home." She held up the empty carry case, "Don't ask me how I didn't notice that it wasn't in here."

Stephanie raised an eyebrow in irritation, "Really? You can't work without it today? It's going take you an hour to get home and back."

"I was working on it last night, there's stuff I need on there."

Stephanie sighed, "Fine, go."

Hesitantly Nikki asked, "One more thing, can I borrow your car?"

"You want an hour out of work and you want my car?" Stephanie diverted her attention to Nikki from whatever she was reading on her computer screen for the first time.

"You know I ride in with Vince. I don't want to wait until his meeting is done to borrow his car."

Stephanie shook her head tiredly, "Fine." She took her keys from her desk and tossed them to Nikki.

"Thanks Steph, I won't let this happen again and I'll be as quick as I can."

Stephanie looked back at her computer, "Don't rush Nikki, drive safely. But don't make a habit of this."

Nikki hurried back to her office, glad that she would not have to do this again. Family or not it was not nice having to ask Stephanie for something like this. She quickly removed the laptop from her desk and put it in the case, then she left the building as quickly as she could and headed for the pawn shop that she had located online earlier. Ten minutes later she walked into the shop and before the guy who presumably owned the place could say anything she spoke, "On the assumption that I'm not an idiot I need a price for this that is at least somewhere near fair." She held the necklace out and the man took it. He laughed at her words but as he looked at the necklace he grew serious.

He studied it carefully for a couple of minutes and then studied Nikki equally as carefully. She wondered if he was trying to figure out if she had stolen it. "It's mine, okay," she assured him. "I just need cash, quickly."

His attention returned to the necklace, "You say you're not an idiot but you want to sell this here?"

"I just told you, I need cash."

The shopkeeper made an offer. Nikki was convinced that it was insulting but it was more money than she needed, just, and that was what mattered. She accepted the offer and within two minutes he had given her the cash in a brown envelope. Next went into a nearby store and bought a sandwich as she was still early for the agreed meeting time. She dropped the envelope into the plastic bag with her sandwich and walked to where she had arranged the meeting. As she approached the agreed upon location she saw her old friend sitting on a bench. She walked over and sat next to him, making sure that her bag was between them.

"You look good Nikki."

Nikki kept her voice low so that nobody nearby would be able to hear anything she said, "There's an envelope in that bag with more than you asked for. Call it a tip."

The man showed no reaction and spoke as quietly as Nikki had done, "You know why I went for this Nikki? Your plan was so simple. There are two ways people get busted on something like this, they overcomplicate or they run their mouths. If you keep this to yourself there's nothing to trace this to me and certainly not to you, assuming you weren't stupid enough to take this money from your bank account?"

"I'm not an idiot." She took her sandwich out of the bag and started to eat.

"Right, then just keep your mouth shut." With that he picked up the plastic bag with the envelope inside and just like that he was gone. Nikki sat for a few minutes waiting for her nerves to settle down as she forced herself to eat the sandwich. She could hardly believe how easy it had been to have someone killed and to get away with it. She realised she should to hurry back to the office. Aside from being late she wanted to speak to Stephanie about something else that had been keeping her awake at night.

* * *

Nikki walked through Stephanie's open office door and closed it behind her, "Steph..."

With a hint of irritation Stephanie looked up, "Are you going to do any work today Nikki?"

"Steph, I need to talk, please?"

Stephanie picked up on Nikki's tone and was suddenly worried, "What is it? Sit down."

Nikki accepted the offer of a seat, "I've been worrying Steph. You know Brie is back to work Monday?"

"Yes, I know that."

"Please don't give her a hard time. I know you don't like her but it would mean so much to me if the two of you could at least try to get along. Brie promised me she would try her best."

Stephanie did not speak for a few seconds and silence descended on the office. Nikki wondered what she was thinking. Finally a response arrived, "I was thinking about this earlier. There are two ways that this could go Nikki, one positive and one negative."

"Okay?"

"Firstly the negative is obvious, Brie shows up and irritates me and I fire her ass."

"Steph..."Nikki pleaded but Stephanie ignored her and continued, "Or, she shows up without an attitude and we try to work things out. Also I have an idea, I want Brie at Smackdown on Thursday."

Nikki was confused now, "She's on suspension until Monday."

"She's not if I say she isn't. I want her at Smackdown."

"Thanks Steph," Nikki exclaimed in delight. "What idea?"

"I'm saying nothing until Thursday but I guarantee you'll like it. You have your phone with you?" Nikki nodded and Stephanie ordered, "Call Brie and give me the phone."

"Okay but please don't let this end in an argument?" Nikki asked as she took out her phone. "It's really important to me." She called her sister's number and handed the phone over to Stephanie.

After several rings Brie answered, "Hi Nikki."

"Brie, this is Stephanie McMahon." Stephanie detected no anger or hatred in Brie's voice, only surprise, "Stephanie? Uh... how are you?"

"Fine, I'm lifting your suspension Brie. I need you at Smackdown tomorrow night."

"What?" Brie sounded even more surprised than Nikki had earlier. "I mean, thank you. What's happening at Smackdown?"

"You'll find out when you get there." Stephanie ended the call and handed Nikki's phone back to her.

"What did she say?" Nikki asked eagerly.

"She said thank you."

Nikki was relieved that nothing had gone wrong, "Thanks Steph, this means a lot to me. I'm going to go do some work now."

Stephanie laughed, "That would be nice."

Back in her office Nikki called her sister again. Brie answered but it was apparent that she did not know who to expect, "Hello?"

"It's me, Brie. You okay?"

"What's going on Nikki?" Brie asked, sounding confused. "Why do I need to be there tomorrow?"

"I know as much as you do. Stephanie has an idea that obviously involves you. I'll ask you the same as I just asked her, when you show up tomorrow can you please try to get along with Steph? It would mean so much to me."

"I'll do my best Nikki."


	5. Chapter 5

Nikki waited near the entrance to the arena wondering where Brie and Daniel and were. She was nervous about tonight and waiting for Brie to arrive was making it worse. Not only did she hope that she could work things out with her sister they also had the problem of Brie and Stephanie speaking to each other. Despite what both of them had promised her she realised how easily this could all go wrong. She was so lost in her thoughts that she had not noticed Brie and Daniel walking across the parking lot towards her until they were halfway there. "Hi guys," she greeted them with a warm smile.

"Hi Nikki," Daniel greeted her with a smile, "I'll leave you guys to it." With that he walked into the building. Nikki looked at her sister and tears filled her eyes as she saw Brie smile warmly, "Hi Nikki. I missed you."

Nikki grabbed her sister in a hug and failed to blink away her tears, "I missed you too. I'm so glad you're back."

They were still hugging as Brie almost whispered, "Nikki I'm so sorry. I just, You know I was worried about you and I reacted totally the wrong way, so I'm sorry."

"Let's not talk about it Brie," Nikki released her sister, wipin a tear from her cheek as she did so. "We both said nasty things to each other that we didn't mean, can we forget it and move on?"

Brie nodded, "I'd love to."

"We need to go and talk to Stephanie," Nikki reminded her sister nervously.

Brie closed her eyes but Nikki detected that it was due to her own nervousness instead of anger. "I'll be honest, I'm not looking forward to this," Brie mumbled. The two women walked into the building and Nikki reassured her sister, "Steph promised not to give you a hard time. Things will be okay." She managed not to add, "I hope."

Despite Nikki's assurance Brie still sounded nervous, "You wouldn't think that if you had heard us the last time we were in a room together. I'm surprised it didn't end in a fight."

"If things start to get heated please just stop talking and let me calm her down. I've gotten to be quite good at it."

Brie laughed, "Well, you are her step-mom."

"I think of her more like a sister," Nikki clarified seriously. "We've been through a lot these last few weeks Brie, and it's brought us close together."

Brie turned and studied Nikki, "Stephanie means a lot to you huh?"

"You both do. That's why I don't want to see you fighting. Here's Steph's office. Are you ready?"

"Yeah," Brie confirmed, letting out a deep breath. Nikki knocked on the office door and walked in with Brie close behind. "Good evening Stephanie," Brie greeted the boss politely and with a smile. Stephanie looked up and met Brie's eyes as she growled, "What's good about it?"

"Steph! You promised me," Nikki whined as Brie's face fell but after a moment Stephanie could not keep her act up any longer and a grin appeared, "I got you. I got you both. You should have seen your faces."

"Damn it. Don't do that," Nikki said, laughing with relief.

"Come in Brie, have a seat on the couch. Nikki go get some coffee would you?"

Unsure about leaving them alone Nikki mumbled, "Uh... right, coffee."

"We're not going to kill each other Nikki, get some coffee and get my dad then get back here. You guys need to hear my idea too."

"Stephanie I want to apologise about before," Brie began nervously after Nikki had left the office. "Some of the things I said to you were way out of line."

Stephanie stared at her employee, right in her eyes but when she spoke her voice lacked the hostility that Brie still found herself expecting. "Tell me Brie, why don't you like me?"

The question sounded like an invitation to walk into a minefield to Brie and she had no intention of doing so. "Stephanie I'm trying to apologise I don't want another argument here."

"It's not a trick question Brie and I'm not going to lose it with you. I'm just interested."

Brie still did not want to answer but she was now left without really having a choice. She tried to come up with a way to phrase her response diplomatically, "I don't know... it's just... the way you order people around and bark at people. Also... well, you intimidate me."

"They are reasons to not enjoy working for me, not reasons to dislike me personally. Like it or not we're family Brie."

It was a relief to Brie when she realised that indeed it had not been a trick question. "I know Stephanie, that's the realisation I came to. Daniel tried to tell me all along but I'm too stubborn to listen to people. I just uh... worry about my sister."

Stephanie laughed, "At least there's something we have in common, the not listening I mean. There's no reason to worry about Nikki."

Brie spoke quickly, changing the subject, "From what I hear you listen to Nikki."

"What?" Once of Stephanie's eyebrows raised slightly.

Realising she may have made a mistake in her hurry to divert the conversation Brie tried to back out. "Nothing, forget it."

"From what you hear I listen to Nikki. Explain that to me."

Reluctantly Brie did as ordered, "It's just that Nikki said that when you get... stressed she is able to calm you down. She said she thinks of you as a sister to her and she said you mean a lot to her." She was stunned to see Stephanie begin to blush, "Nikki said that?"

"Stephanie it's not my place to talk to you about this. Talk to Nikki, okay?"

Stephanie seemed lost in thought for a long moment but Eventually she said, "You can call me Steph in private Brie. We're family now."

Automatically a smile appeared on Brie's face as she sensed that this was a sign of progress. At that moment the office's door crashed open and Vince and Nikki came in with Nikki carrying three coffee cups. Vince smiled, "Hi Steph, welcome back Brie."

"Well, I don't see blood anywhere," Nikki quipped with a smile of her own.

"No we had a pleasant conversation, right Brie?" Stephanie managed a hint of a smile of her own.

Brie nodded, "Yes, we did."

Nikki handed out the coffee cups with a big smile on her face as Stephanie got down to business, "Right, listen up. Here's my idea for tonight."


	6. Chapter 6

After the first match on Smackdown had finished the coverage cut to a shot of Stephanie McMahon sitting in her office. There was a cheer from the crowd as they watched on the big screen. Daniel Bryan walked into the shot and there was a much louder cheer. Stephanie stood and smiled, "Hi Daniel."

"Stephanie you've had my back these past few weeks so I'm here to say if you need a partner tonight then look no further."

The crowd began to chant, "Yes!" as Stephanie replied, "Thank you Daniel, I appreciate your help. I'll see you out there."

Daniel nodded and walked out of the shot leaving Stephanie with a smile of satisfaction on her face.

* * *

After the commercial break Renee Young appeared on the big screen, "Please welcome... Mr. McMahon." The crowd booed as Vince entered the shot. "Mr. McMahon I'd like to get your reaction to what we just saw. Your daughter Stephanie will team with Daniel Bryan to face you and Nikki Bella tonight."

Vince smirked, "Actually Renee... she won't. She won't be teaming with Daniel Bryan as he is already booked in a match tonight and therefore is unavailable."

"But Mr. McMahon..." Renee attempted to ask a further question but Vince had already walked away.

* * *

After the next match Stephanie was shown on the big screen again, this time walking along a hallway. She stopped walking, looking at someone outside of the shot. Randy Orton walked into the shot to another cheer, his face turn had worked out surprisingly well. "Need a partner?" Was his simple offer. Stephanie nodded and Orton said, "You got it." He walked off leaving Stephanie looking a little confused but pleased nonetheless.

* * *

After the next match finished and Michael Cole finished trying to push the WWE network Renee Young appeared once more on the big screen. She was standing outside of a closed door. "I'm outside of Mr. McMahon's office and I'm hoping to get a word about the fact that Stephanie will..." She was interrupted by the door opening and Nikki Bella walking out to huge boos from the crowd. "Nikki can I get a word on..."

Nikki looked at Renee disrespectfully, "Excuse me? Who do you think you are?"

"Sorry?" Renee asked defensively.

"You will address me as Miss Bella. Is that understood?" They had to pause as the crowd had launched into the new favourite chant, "Slut!"

"Miss Bella," Renee tried again. "Do you have any reaction to the news that you will be facing Stephanie McMahon and Randy Orton tonight?"

Nikki narrowed her eyes, looking confused by Renee's apparent stupidity. "Randy Orton? Didn't you know? Orton is facing Daniel Bryan tonight so he won't be available." With that Nikki retreated into the office and banged the door closed in Renee's face.

"John this is ridiculous. They're making this up as they go along," Michael Cole moaned on commentary.

"Stephanie is running out of friends quickly Michael," JBL chirped gleefully.

* * *

After another match and a commercial break Stephanie was shown on the screen again, now back in her office with a worried expression on her face. The crowd began to chant, "Steph!" in support of her but they stopped as Jerry Lawler walked into the shot. Stephanie looked up at him quizzically, "Hi Jerry."

"Stephanie I know you would ideally have liked someone better but I said Monday night that if no one else would team with you I would do it myself, so here I am."

"Thank you Jerry," Stephanie smiled.

* * *

After a promo for the upcoming Survivor Series pay per view and the main event match between Mr. McMahon and Stephanie for control of the company Renee Young appeared on the screen yet again and once more she was standing next to Mr. McMahon. "Mr. McMahon you requested this interview..."

She held the microphone towards the Chairman and he announced, "Sadly Jerry Lawler will not be able to compete tonight as understandably we have concerns over his previous... heath issues. Therefore he will not be eligible for tonight's tag team match."

"Damn it," Cole yelled. "I'm sick of this John. They're trying to make sure Stephanie has to come out here alone. This is pathetic."

JBL laughed, "She can always forfeit."

* * *

After another match it was time for the main event. Mr. McMahon and Nikki were shown walking towards the arena entrance, Vince in jeans and a black t-shirt which revealed an incredibly muscular figure for a man of his age and Nikki in her usual ring gear. Next Stephanie was shown in her office, now also in her ring gear. Jerry Lawler was still in the office and he sighed, "What are you going to do?"

Stephanie looked him in the eye, trying to show no fear, "I'm going out there." She left the shot as the crowd cheered but Lawler looked worried on her behalf. Mr. McMahon's music filled the arena as did a chorus of boos. He swaggered down the ramp as did Nikki and the two seemed to share a joke presumably at Stephanie's expense. Nikki was laughing as she entered the ring. Their music faded and a loud "Steph!" chant began as the crowd waited for her entrance. After a few moments her music played to a loud cheer. Stephanie walked down the ramp holding a microphone. She stopped at the bottom of the ramp and did not approach the ring.

"She's not going to do it," JBL chirped. "She's scared of them!"

"Damn it John," Cole yelled. "It's two on one. This isn't fair."

Stephanie raised her microphone, "You two idiots really thought that I didn't see this coming? That I didn't know you would pull this crap? Well I may have just said I was coming out here..." The crowd waited for her to say that she was not going to wrestle but instead she said, "But I didn't say I was coming alone." The crowd cheered at the realisation that Stephanie did in fact have a partner. Then they cheered again as Brie Bella's music played.

"Wait a minute!" Cole yelled. "That's Brie Bella! She's back!"

As Brie ran down the ramp JBL demanded, "But whose side is she on?"

Brie slid into the ring and threw herself at Nikki, taking her down. The twins began frantically attacking each other as they rolled around, both trying to get the upper hand. "She's not on Nikki's side, that's for damn sure!" Cole yelled.

"Stephanie agreed to a mixed tag team match, this isn't fair!" JBL raged.

"Not fair?" Cole scoffed. "There are two women on Stephanie's team for God's sake!"

After a few minutes of back and forth action Brie became isolated in the ring. The crowd booed as Vince and Nikki repeatedly double teamed her every time the referee was distracted. As Nikki held Brie in a choke hold she yelled at Stephanie loud enough to be heard on the TV coverage, "Come on Steph, I thought you were going to put me in hospital? Huh? Come on, let's go!" As Stephanie angrily tried to get in the ring the referee went over and battled with her, trying to keep her on the apron. Once again Vince and Nikki changed positions without a tag as the referee was distracted, only this time as Vince sauntered over to Brie as she lay on the canvas she managed to desperately kick him below the belt which also went undetected.

The crowd roared and chanted "Steph!" as Vince and Brie tried to crawl to their corners in apparent agony. They knew that they were about to see Stephanie get her hands on Nikki at last. Vince got his tag first and Nikki raced into the ring to try to stop Brie from making it to her corner and to Stephanie's outstretched hand but she was not fast enough. Brie got the tag and the crowd exploded. Stephanie leapt into the ring and Nikki started to back off, holding her hands up defensively and wanting no part of the enraged boss. Stephanie threw herself at Nikki and took her down. After a few punches to the face Stephanie stood and began stomping on Nikki with the crowd yelling, "Yes!" to accompany each one. Stephanie waited for Nikki to get to her feet and when she did so Stephanie attempted to whip Nikki into the corner but Nikki reversed the move and Stephanie cashed into the corner herself. However as Nikki tried to run in Stephanie caught her with a kick square in the jaw. The crowd roared as they knew by the sound that the impact made that it would be a certain three count. Stephanie crawled on top of Nikki and the crowd joined in with the count, "One... Two..." but Vince reached into the ring and yanked Stephanie out of the ring by her ankle. As she got up from the floor Vince punched her square in the face.

The crowd bellowed their disgust and Cole howled, "Come on! He punched his own daughter in the face!"

"You'll see worse than that at the Survivor Series, Michael. That match is no disqualification!" JBL seemed to be loving the father and daughter violence.

What Vince had not noticed was Brie approaching him from behind with a chair in her hands. She was about to swing it at him when he turned around and saw her. She thought better of her plan, abandoned it and ran for the entrance ramp. Vince was not as fast as Brie but he chased after her as she ran up the ramp. "It's down to Stephanie and Nikki, and they're both down!" Cole announced excitedly.

Nikki began to stir in the ring but suddenly there was a roar from the crowd although the reason for it was not immediately obvious. Then the camera angle changed and it was revealed that Stephanie was also stirring out on the floor and she had just pulled something from under the ring; her husband's trademark sledgehammer. She managed to get to her feet and roll into the ring, taking position behind Nikki as she also tried to get up. The referee yelled at Stephanie not to use the weapon as JBL barked, "Don't do it! You'll kill her!" The crowd chanted "Steph!" as she stood poised and ready to strike. As Nikki staggered to her feet and turned around Stephanie swung as hard as she could and buried the sledgehammer into Nikki's stomach. The crowd roared as Nikki crumpled to the floor and the referee threw the match out, disqualifying Stephanie. Not caring about the loss Stephanie left the ring, looking back at Nikki in disgust as medical personnel ran in to attend to the remains of Nikki.

"This went too far John," Cole mumbled in shock. "Stephanie said she would put Nikki in hospital but I didn't think it would come to this." Smackdown went off air with Nikki surrounded by officials and paramedics trying to help her.


	7. Chapter 7

Nikki Bella was wheeled through the curtain on a stretcher surrounded by the extras hired to play the part of paramedics. This was to sell her injuries to the fans in the live audience. As soon as they were through the curtain Nikki hopped off the stretcher and walked over to Stephanie, holding her stomach as she did so. "Jesus, Steph! You said that wouldn't hurt!"

Stephanie took a drink from a bottle of water she was holding. "Sorry Nikki, I didn't think it would as it wasn't a real hammer. Is it bad?"

"I'm okay but I think it will bruise and it knocked the wind out of me."

"I'm sorry, I didn't want you to get hurt. Go have the doc check you out and make sure you're okay."

"I'm fine Steph, don't worry."

"Just get checked out Nikki, please. Even if it's only to make me feel better."

"Okay," Nikki shrugged and headed off to the doctor's room.

Stephanie turned around to go and take a shower but Brie approached her, "Stephanie I want to thank you for this opportunity. It was so good to get back out there and the reaction this storyline is getting is insane."

"You're welcome. Stop by my office before you leave, as you know Nikki is off TV now until Survivor Series to sell her injury so we need to talk about what's going to happen Monday night."

"You're keeping me involved in this?" Brie asked hopefully.

"Yes. Unless you give me a reason not to."

"No, I'll give you my best." Brie assured her. Stephanie nodded and walked away. Brie realised that Stephanie had been speaking the truth that day in her office; if you were part of the McMahon family they really did look after you. She had returned early from a suspension and gone straight into the main storyline as well.

* * *

Stephanie entered her hotel room and removed her suit jacket. She threw it onto the bed and sat next to it with a tired sigh. It was time to call Paul and check on her family. She presumed it was too late to be able to speak to the girls, they should have been in bed and asleep long before now. Thursday nights really were the worst thing about taking this new job, being away from home and away from her family was a real killer.

"Hi honey, how are you?" Paul greeted warmly as he answered the call.

"Crap," Stephanie answered honestly. "I ache all over, I'm tired and I'm lonely. How about you and the girls?"

"We're fine but we miss you. The girls are asleep so you'll not be able to chat to them."

"I hate this job Paul," Stephanie moaned. "I hate being here by myself."

Paul hated to hear his wife talking this way. "Think about tomorrow honey, you'll be here with us and if you still feel bad I can give you one of those foot massages you like so much."

"I'd give anything for that right now," Stephanie sighed as she imagined how nice his touch would feel on her feet as he worked the tension out of her.

Wanting to take Stephanie's mind off of being so lonely Paul changed the subject, "I just watched your match. I waited until the girls were asleep as you asked. You were right, they wouldn't have liked it, but I did. You look so good in that damn ring gear!"

Stephanie beamed, "Thank you honey. It made you miss me even more huh?"

"You bet it did. The match was great too, you didn't tell me you had brought Brie back early."

"I wasn't sure that I had until I talked to her. She's finally dropped that stupid attitude she had."

Paul laughed, "Last time I was in a room with the two of you Daniel had to carry her out and that was after you slammed her up against the wall."

"I was a little rough with her wasn't I?" Stephanie giggled.

"Just a little. So you talked with her? Things are okay between you?"

Stephanie lay down on the bed as she answered tiredly, "Yeah I think so. Guess what she told me?"

"What?"

"She said that Nikki told her that she thinks of me as a sister and that we're very close to each other."

"We're pleased about that, right?" Paul asked hesitantly.

"Of course. Why wouldn't I be pleased?"

Thinking back to the day when Stephanie had found out about Nikki and Vince being together and the fifteen minute rampage that had ensued in the office Paul smiled to himself, "No reason, I'm glad the two of you have gotten to be close. She's there for you when I'm not." Suddenly he remembered something that he had meant to tell her, "Oh Steph, those detectives were in the office again earlier asking for you."

"Seriously?" Stephanie sighed in frustration. "How many times to I have to tell those guys my story? They've got my statement, they've got Nikki's statement and they've had all of my phone records and bank records. It's obvious I had nothing to do with what happened to John for God's sake."

"Actually they came by to say that John's funeral is next Wednesday and they advised that we don't send anyone from WWE as the family wouldn't want it, given what happened. Maybe we should talk to Vince about it."

"I'm going," Stephanie responded immediately.

"What?"

"I said I'm going."

"No way," Paul insisted. "What's wrong with you? What did I just say? The family don't want anyone from WWE to be there and they definitely won't want you."

"You know I offered to pay all of the funeral expenses and they turned me down. I feel guilty about what happened especially so soon after John and I put our differences aside. Not only that I need to go for myself, this ends a horrible chapter in my life. I need to do this."

"No Steph," Paul insisted once more. "The family won't want you there and I don't want more trouble, none of us do."

"I'm not discussing it Paul, I'm going. I'm sure Nikki will come with me. I want you there with me too."

Paul knew how his wife was lately and knew that she would not change her mind whether they had an argument or not so he decided not to bother, "Fine but if anything bad happens I'm going to be pissed off Steph, am I clear on that?"

"Crystal. Nothing will happen, I just need to go and put this behind thing me for good. I won't even go near John's family, I promise."

Paul was irritated by how the conversation had gone so he decided to get off the phone before some kind of argument started, "I'm going to go Steph, I'll see you tomorrow, okay?"

Stephanie realised that she had angered her husband but still she was not going to change her mind, "Okay, goodnight honey. I miss you."

"I miss you too." Paul ended the call.

Suddenly Stephanie felt incredibly lonely as she lay on the bed. A moment later she found herself pulling Nikki's number up on her phone. She was undecided on whether to call the number as she was reasonably sure that Nikki and Vince would be in their room together by now but she felt so bad that she just had to talk to someone. She made the call and eventually Nikki answered, probably only just beating her voice mail to it. "Hi Steph, everything okay?"

"No Nikki, I feel terrible." Stephanie was surprised herself by how sad she sounded. "I miss my family and I think Paul and I just had a fight on the phone."

Wondering how you could 'think' that you had a fight with someone Nikki offered, "I'm about to go meet Brie and Daniel in the bar for a drink soon, why don't you come down and join us?"

"I'd like that, what about my dad?" Stephanie asked, brightening already.

"He's exhausted bless him. All this travelling, then that match and then... Well never mind that he's tired and he's getting an early night."

Stephanie laughed, "Nearly way too much info Nikki. I'll come down and join you shortly. You're sure Brie and Daniel won't think I'm intruding?"

"Don't be stupid Steph, lighten up and come get drunk!"

Usually Stephanie did not like to drink during the week but tonight it sounded like a fantastic idea to her so a few minutes later she picked up her jacket and headed for the door.


	8. Chapter 8

Stephanie walked into the hotel's bar and immediately saw Daniel, Brie and Nikki sitting at a table near the back of the room. She walked over and Nikki smiled when she saw her approaching, "Hey Steph, sit down. I just ordered some wine, I know that's the only thing you drink."

"Hi Steph," Brie and Daniel both greeted as Stephanie sat down opposite them, beside Nikki. She detected nervousness from both of them. It was fine when she was at work but she did not like it when she was trying to spend time with her extended family. Both of these people were family now so she had to try to put them at ease. "Please don't feel nervous guys, we're not at work. This is just family having a drink together, okay?"

Daniel managed a laugh, "Okay, so you promise not to beat my wife up this time?"

"Leave her alone you idiot," Nikki scolded him with a giggle.

Stephanie knew she would not enjoy the night until she got her problem off her chest so she turned to Nikki. "Nikki I need you to do something for me next Wednesday."

"Sure, what is it?"

"Come with me to John Cena's funeral."

Silence descended at the table as Nikki looked stunned and Brie and Daniel glanced at each other. "Are you serious?" Nikki demanded. "What the hell do you want to go for? The family won't want you there."

"I don't expect you to understand," Stephanie mumbled, looking down at the table rather than meeting Nikki's eyes. "I just need to do it. Please will you come? Paul said he will but he's not happy about it and I thought maybe it would be easier if you came too."

"Stephanie this isn't my business but it sounds like a bad idea to me," Daniel said carefully.

Nikki thought for a moment as the awkward silence returned. "If we do this will you finally get the guy out of your head? We should be past this by now."

"Yes. Can we talk about this later?" Stephanie now seriously regretted bringing up the subject in front of Brie and Daniel and was unsure why she had done so. She needed to be better at controlling her emotions than that.

"I'd love to know what actually went on between you and John?" Brie asked.

Stephanie laughed, hoping to lighten the mood and not ruin the night for everyone, "I'll need more than a bottle of wine before we have that conversation Brie."

The drinks arrived and Nikki poured wine for herself and then for her sister and Stephanie. Stephanie drank half of her glass in one hit and immediately felt a little better, "Guys I'm sorry to bring up something like that, I don't want to spoil the night."

Daniel sipped from his beer, "Forget it, it's not a problem."

Nikki decided to talk about something that would make a nicer subject, "How are the girls Steph?"

"They're great. I didn't get to chat to them tonight and I miss them like crazy but yeah, they're great."

You really have to meet Steph's kids Brie," Nikki told her sister. "They're the most adorable girls ever."

"I'd like that," Brie said hopefully.

"I'm sure you'll be visiting Nikki and dad at some point, right?" Stephanie asked. "We could all come over when you're there."

Brie smiled, "I'd like that a lot, Daniel?"

Daniel nodded, "Yeah definitely."

There was another awkward silence as Daniel and Brie did not really know Stephanie at all and they were not sure what to talk about and suddenly Nikki seemed to be lost in thought. Eventually Daniel decided to go with the one thing he knew he could talk to Stephanie about. Business. "Steph I want to thank you for writing me as the winner of the triple threat match for the title at Survivor Series. Bryan, Orton and Lesnar will be great and it'll be an honour to have the title again."

Stephanie smiled, "You're the biggest face we have and we need a big feel good moment before the main event."

Daniel took a second to process that, "A feel good moment before the main event? Oh shit! You're going to lose?"

"That was my idea," Nikki announced proudly, now back on the same planet as everyone else.

"Steph, really? You're letting Nikki loose on storylines?" Brie joked.

"This whole thing was Nikki's idea." Stephanie sounded as if she was just as proud as Nikki was.

"Really?" Brie and Daniel asked simultaneously as Nikki grinned. Stephanie continued, "Ratings are through the roof, TNA can't live with what we're throwing at them now."

"You're certainly raising the stakes after getting away from PG," Daniel said. "I mean, women hitting each other with hammers? Christ!"

"Yeah, that still hurts!" Nikki quipped.

Stephanie's voice was now transformed, containing incredible passion, "I wanted ratings and I'm getting them. I don't care about criticism, I don't care about money. I'm here to put an end to TNA and that's all. I'll tell you something that I saw the other day, TNA's stock price fell for the first time since Dwayne Johnson bought that place. It has begun."

As more wine was consumed the conversation started to flow more easily and by the end of the night everyone was getting along well. Nikki was overjoyed that Stephanie and Brie were finally getting along. She remembered what Stephanie had said about fighting with Paul on the phone and although it was late she decided to send him a text: _Don't worry, I'll go with Steph to the funeral xx_

Paul was lying in bed but he was awake. He missed Stephanie and felt guilty about his part in the near argument. He saw his phone light up and grabbed it, hoping that it was Stephanie calling him. He read the text and felt a moment of irritation. He lay there worrying about Stephanie and the fact that she suddenly seemed to rely so heavily on Nikki. The more he thought about it the sadder he felt. Maybe Nikki really did understand his wife better than he did? Maybe the reason Stephanie had struggled so much over the last few months was that he had not been able to help her as Nikki obviously could? Maybe if he had done a better job of helping her things would not have gotten so bad? How had he not done anything to help her when Linda died? Looking back on it he realised how obvious it had been that she was sick. He lay awake the whole night as he ran through the last few weeks in his head and hit on the realisation that Stephanie had been drifting away from him. They spent less and less time together both at home and at work and when they were together things were different somehow. She had stopped talking to him about her problems and now she went to Nikki instead. Every time she needed something she went to Nikki. He felt incredible sadness as he convinced himself that he had failed his wife and was now losing her.


	9. Chapter 9

By the next morning Paul was a mess. He had hardly slept all night and he was saddened by the realisation that he had made. Despite how he was feeling he tried his best to make things seem normal as he made breakfast for the girls. The last thing he wanted was for them to get upset before school. All he really wanted to do was talk to Stephanie but he knew that this was not a conversation to have on the phone. Even when she returned to the office and he did speak to her what the hell was he going to say?

"Daddy!" Murphy's voice startled him out of his thoughts. He had been pouring milk onto her breakfast cereal and had not realised that he had overflowed the bowl and now milk was all over the table top. "Silly," Murphy giggled.

He fetched a cloth to clean up his mess and as he did so he noticed Aurora silently watching him as she chewed on her toast. The look on her face made him suspect that his eldest daughter sensed something was wrong so he asked her, "Are you okay?"

Aurora nodded but Paul had seen it in her eyes a moment before. Maybe she did not understand exactly what was going on but she definitely knew that something was wrong. Maybe she had realised it even before he had. Even if that was not the case she had certainly picked up on it now.

* * *

As he drove the girls to school Paul tried his best to make his usual jokes and happy conversation and Murphy and Vaughn joined in and laughed along but he glanced over at Aurora in the front seat a few times and he saw that she looked distracted, almost sad. He felt guilty that this was now having an effect on her and he realised that it would not be long before the other girls picked up on it too. As he walked them into school he said goodbye to them with the usual hug for each of them. He noticed Aurora held onto him more tightly than usual as she said, "Love you dad." He wanted to tell her that everything would be okay but he did not know if it was actually true so he went with, "I love you too sweetheart."

With the girls safely in school he headed back to the car feeling that incredible sadness again in the pit of his stomach as he wondered how everything had gone wrong so quickly but then he reminded himself that it had not really happened quickly at all; it had been happening for weeks if not months. It was just that he had only just seen it. He wanted to talk to Stephanie more desperately than he could remember wanting anything for a very long time but he forced himself to concentrate on his driving before he had an accident.

* * *

After reaching the office he sat at his desk but he was unable to do any work as he could not concentrate on anything. He looked at the framed photo of Stephanie and the girls that held pride of place on his desk. They all looked so happy but that was no surprise, the picture had been taken before Linda died and everything changed. Again he raged at himself for not taking better care of Stephanie at the time. Why had he not made her go to therapy or something? He remembered how she had been at Linda's funeral. Hell, Stephanie still could not remember the funeral now. It was the one thing she had never been able to recall. He remembered her pale face and how her eyes had stared straight ahead without focussing on anything. She had not spoken to anyone the whole day as far as he could remember and what had he done? He had hugged her and told her it would be okay. Was that really the best that he could have done for her? No.

He found himself wishing that Nikki had been around back then. He was sure that none of what happened with John Cena would have happened if Nikki had been there for Stephanie which made him feel even worse. What kind of husband was he when he found himself wishing that someone his wife had only known for a month or so was there to take care of her instead of himself? He looked at his watch and saw that he had only been in the office for half an hour. He probably had at least three hours to wait until Stephanie arrived.

* * *

It was past one pm Paul saw as he checked his watch for what felt like the millionth time. Surely Stephanie should have been back by now? He decided to head to her office and find out if Lucy knew where she had gotten to. A minute later he walked into Stephanie's office and asked, "Lucy do you know where my wife is? I thought she would be back by now."

"They are back sir. Mrs. McMahon went to lunch with Miss Bella."

Paul sighed, turned and left, walking slowly back to his office. He could not stop the same thought running through his head over and over; Stephanie had arrived back and then left with Nikki without even bothering to come to see him. This was even worse than he had feared.


	10. Chapter 10

Paul returned to his office feeling devastated. He sat down at his desk and again looked at the picture of Stephanie and the girls. The big smile on his wife's face now seemed to hurt him so badly. Was his marriage already over? He taunted himself that maybe he should ask Nikki, she would have a better idea than he did. He sat there for a few minutes feeling nothing but despair but then suddenly his office door opened and Stephanie walked in, "Hey! I bought you a... Jesus Paul are you okay? You look like crap."

Paul looked at his wife for a second as she in turn looked back at him with concern on her face. It pleased him to see and hear that at least she still cared, "I had a bad night," was his simple response.

Stephanie walked over to him and held something out towards him, "I bought you a sandwich."

"You went out to buy me a sandwich?" The relief in his voice sounded a little out of place and kid of pathetic even to him.

"No I went out to have a sandwich with Nikki but I brought you one back. Are you sick? You look like you're on drugs or something."

"I told you I didn't sleep last night."

"Is it one of the girls?" Stephanie asked quickly, sounding even more concerned. "Are they all okay?"

"The girls are all fine Steph," he assured her. "It's me."

"So what's wrong with you?"

Paul realised that he did not know how to bring up the subject that he wanted to discuss and he also feared that no matter what he said Stephanie would get angry. Admittedly she, like her father, had always had a temper but it was different now, she got angrier and it happened much easier. This was his own wife and he did not know how to talk to her any more. She had changed. "Steph we need to talk. Why don't I make us a meal tonight and we can sit down together?"

Stephanie sighed, "Don't start with me Paul, I know you don't think it's a good idea to go to the funeral but guess what? As usual Nikki will be there for me so you don't have to worry about it."

Two sentences. That was all it took to completely confirm what he had feared all day and to leave him feeling totally destroyed. "It's not like that. I want to go with you, I want to be there for you. Can we please just talk tonight? I don't want to argue, I just want to talk."

"You made your feelings clear Paul, you don't want to go. I asked for your support and you didn't want to give it to me."

"Steph I'm sorry. I'll go with you, I'll do whatever it takes I just don't want to lose you." He was so desperate for her to listen to him that he did not pick up on the tone of her next question, "What's that supposed to mean?"

"I was awake all night thinking that we're drifting apart..."

Stephanie erupted, "So now I'm a bad wife? Fuck you Paul!" Paul was too stunned by the suddenness and the ferocity of the outburst to say anything as she stormed out and slammed the door. He picked up the sandwich that she had brought him and threw it at the wall as he yelled, "Shit!"

* * *

Paul sat at his desk thinking of ways in which he could have gone about the conversation differently, not that it would do him any good now. He was interrupted by his door opening slightly. Nikki's head appeared around it, "Need to talk?"

Paul sighed, "What are you doing here Nikki?"

"I was just walking into Steph's office when she stormed out. She looked furious and when I asked what was wrong all she said was 'ask that bastard'. I figured that as Vince isn't here that was likely to mean you. Looking at your face I'm guessing that I'm right?"

Paul put his head in his hands and Nikki came in and closed the door as Paul mumbled, "Where was she going?"

"God only knows. You know what she's like when she loses it, she can't even sit down. What happened Paul?"

"She thinks I said she's a bad wife to me."

Nikki's eyes widened, "You told her she's a bad wife? What the hell..."

"I said she thinks I said that," Paul clarified frustratedly, "I actually said that I think we're drifting apart."

"Why do you think that?" Nikki asked after a momentary pause.

"It's everything. I was awake all night thinking about it. We never spend time with each other any more and on the rare occasion that we do it's not the same as it used to be. We argue easily and she never talks to me about anything. She always seems to go to you instead. I'm losing her Nikki."

Nikki considered that she had never seen Paul like this, he was always such a happy, confident man but now he looked destroyed. "You're not going to lose her Paul, she loves you. We all know that. You have to talk to her, you have to fight to keep her."

Paul shook his head with obvious despair, "I just tried and look what happened. I can't even speak to my wife any more."

"But I can," Nikki suggested.

"Yes Nikki I fucking know that," Paul growled, surprising Nikki. "All she ever does is..."

"Shut up you idiot!" Nikki yelled, cutting him off. "I'm offering to help you!"

Paul was about to instinctively say that he did not need help to speak to his wife but he realised that it was exactly what he did need. Nikki might be the only chance he had, "Fine. Talk to her, please."

Nikki stood and squeezed his shoulder, "I'll talk to her. Paul?"

"What?"

Trying to break the news that was apparently not getting through to him gently she said, "Steph's still sick, you do know that right?" Hearing it from someone else finally got the message into his head. Even after everything he had been thinking about today he had not been able to go there, "Oh God Nikki, you really think so?"

"I think so," Nikki said softly. "It might not be anything like as bad as before and I thought she was making real progress after John died but last night when she came to me about the funeral I realised that she's still not coping with it as well as we thought. She's still not right."

"So what do we do?" Paul asked, again hating how pathetic and clueless he sounded. "I just want to help her. I want Stephanie back, that's all I want God damn it."

"I'll talk to her Paul or maybe we could do it together?"

"What if she thinks we're ganging up on her?"

"I'll talk to her first then. I'll go home with you and I'll talk to her, okay?"

"If you think that's the best way."

Nikki squeezed his shoulder again, "We'll get through this Paul." Paul watched Nikki leave the office and now he knew how Stephanie felt about her. Right now he did not know what he would do without her either.


	11. Chapter 11

Paul spent the rest of the afternoon trying to calm himself down. If anything positive was going to happen that night when he got home then it would require him to be the one who kept his cool. He would need to be there for Stephanie and he would need to take whatever she threw at him. He went to find Nikki as it was coming up to five pm and it was time to leave. "Are you ready Nikki?" He asked as he walked into Nikki's small office.

"Yeah I called Vince and told him I would be home late but I avoided telling him why. I'll worry about that later depending on what happens."

"You're right Nikki, Steph is sick again. I should have seen this. I didn't see it the first time and I didn't see it this time either. I'm useless."

"You're not useless," Nikki comforted, "You're just not a doctor."

"Why is it happening again? I don't understand it."

Nikki shrugged, "Maybe John's death. Maybe when you told her about the funeral. I don't know."

"It's not the funeral thing," he sighed. "It's been going on longer than that. I just didn't see it until today. Nikki do you think we should try to convince her to quit her job? I mean all of the travelling and the stress..."

Nikki shook her head, "Definitely not. Work is something that she can focus on. Without it I'm sure things would be worse."

"I just want to understand what she's thinking."

"Well, we'll go find out now, okay? Everything will be fine Paul."

* * *

Paul drove home with Nikki in the passenger seat beside him. "So you want me to talk to Steph first, right?" She asked.

"Yes please. You seem able to keep her calm much better than I can. You speak to her and hopefully you can convince her to talk to me without going off the deep end."

Nikki smiled, "I'll do my best."

Paul felt guilty at lumbering his personal problems onto the woman who he barely knew, "Nikki I'm sorry to ask you to do this. I'm sure you don't need this crap in your life."

"You guys mean the world to me, you and the kids and especially Steph." Nikki assured him. "You don't know what I'd do for you guys, okay? So stop apologising. I'm here whenever you need me." Paul thought that Vince was blessed to be with Nikki, she had a heart of gold. She was such a kind and compassionate person and she would not harm a fly. He felt reassured by the fact that she was going to be there with him tonight.

They pulled up in the driveway and he saw Stephanie's car parked outside as usual. He had wondered if she would actually be home as she had not returned to the office all afternoon and he had imagined that she could have been anywhere.

They both got out of the car and Paul opened the front door of his house. He let Nikki go inside first in case Stephanie was already in a rage but as he walked in he noticed that the house was quiet. Silent in fact. Alarm bells began to ring in his head. Clearly the same had happened to Nikki as she had turned and looked at him quizzically. He tried to sound happy as he called out, "Steph, kids, I'm home." There was no response and only then did he register that the lights were off in the house. It was dark outside so why were the lights off? "Nikki?" He said, trying not to panic.

"Go check upstairs," she whispered before headeding to check in the living room so Paul did as she said and made his way upstairs, now dreadeding what he might find. Where was Stephanie and where were the girls? His heart began to pound in his chest and he mumbled under his breath, "Please don't let this be happening to me."

He looked in Murphy's room as it was the closest to the stairs but it was empty. He turned on the light to make sure and called out, "Murphy? Steph? Anyone up here?" He was walking towards Aurora's room when he heard Nikki's shrill yell from downstairs, "Paul!" He ran as fast as he could to the stairs dreading to imagine who or what Nikki had found. As he began to descend the stairs Nikki yelled again, "Paul! The back door is open!"

He reached the bottom of the stairs and began to run towards the kitchen where the back door was. He could see that Nikki was not in there, she must have gone outside. He heard her yell from outside, "Oh my god! Steph!" All kinds of images of what Nikki may have just seen or found flashed through his mind.

"No, please!" He asked the heavens desperately as he ran through the kitchen towards the back door.


	12. Chapter 12

As he ran outside Paul really expected to see Stephanie dead on the grass or hanging from the tree at the bottom of the garden or something equally dreadful but that was not what he saw. Actually he could not see his wife at all but he could see Nikki running across the grass. Running after her he saw that as she reached the end of the garden she crouched down. He felt nausea taking hold of him as he wondered if his wife lay there dead. As he got closer he heard Nikki saying, "Steph? Talk to me. Where are the girls?"

Paul thanked God as he realised that she was not dead. Relief washed over him and as he had nearly reached them he finally saw Stephanie. She was dressed only in a t-shirt and jeans despite the freezing cold November weather and she was sitting with her legs tucked under her chin and her arms wrapped around them. "No, no, no, no, no!" He yelled, getting louder each time as he knew what the sight meant.

"Steph! Where are the girls?" Nikki demanded again, more forcefully this time. "Talk to me!"

Paul crouched down next to Stephanie but she did not seem to register his presence or at least she gave no indication of doing so. "Steph, please where are the girls?" Touching her arm to try to make her respond he felt how cold she was. "Jesus Nikki, she's freezing. She must have been out here for hours." He realised that this was not a time to try to talk, he had to get his wife warm and do it fast. He scooped her up in his arms and started towards the house.

"Leave me!" Stephanie cried out. "I want to stay there. Put me down! Get off me!"

"You're freezing, you'll get pneumonia. I've got to get you in the house. Tell me where the girls are?"

"Put me down." Stephanie wailed, "That's my special place. I want to go back."

Paul carried her in through the back door and Nikki closed it behind her after following them inside. "Nikki go put the heating on and get some blankets," Paul ordered. "She's freezing."

"I don't know where your heating is or how to work it and I don't know where your blankets are. Put Steph on the couch and I'll talk to her. You go put the heating on and get blankets and make some coffee. Think, where could the kids be?"

Finally Paul's mind began to fight it's way through the panic and he was able to think logically. "Maybe Marissa has them."

"So call her then! Come on Paul switch on for me will you?"

Paul set Stephanie down on the couch and Nikki sat down beside her and wrapped her up tightly in a hug. As she made contact and realised how cold Stephanie was she gasped and barked at Paul who was still staring at Stephanie, "Will you fucking move!"

This at last got Paul into action and he ran and turned the heating up to maximum, then ran upstairs to get blankets. He grabbed a bunch and ran back downstairs as quickly as he could. After charging back into the living room he practically threw them at Nikki who began wrapping them around Stephanie.

Paul went into the kitchen and started the kettle boiling to make hot coffee. He needed to call Marissa. When he took out his phone and saw that he had fourteen missed calls. "What the fuck?" Then he realised that his phone was on silent. Why the hell was it on silent? All of the missed calls were from Marissa. Surely that meant she had the girls with her? He called and waited for an answer. "Come on!" He growled impatiently.

"Paul?" Marissa asked anxiously. "What's going on? I've been calling you and..."

"Marissa just tell me the girls are with you? Are they with you?"

"Yes Paul they're with me..." She continued but Paul did not hear any of it as he collapsed onto a chair at the kitchen in relief. After a moment his mind tuned back in and realised that Marissa was still talking, "Paul? Hello? What's going on over there?"

"Sorry, I'm here."

"Answer me," Marissa demanded. "What's going on? I brought the kids home and Steph's car was there but we couldn't get her to open the door. Why don't I have a key to your place damn it? Are you home now?"

"Yes I'm home." Paul could tell that Marissa was trying to calm down as she spoke more quietly, "The girls are worried sick Paul, I am too. Where's Steph?"

"We found her in the garden," he mumbled.

There was a pause as Marissa made sure no one could hear her. "What do you mean found her?" Marissa asked, the horror obvious in her voice.

Paul realised how he had accidentally made it sound. "Not like that. She's alive but she's sick. Look I need to go, okay? Please keep the girls at your place. Tell them... something."

"Oh god Paul..." Marissa began but Paul cut her off, "Please just take care of my girls." He hung up and made the coffee that Nikki had asked for as quickly as he could. He hurried into the living room with it as soon as it was ready, not bothering with milk or sugar. "Steph? Are you okay?"

Nikki had wrapped the blankets around Stephanie and she was holding her tightly with Stephanie's head resting on her chest and shoulder. "She hasn't said anything yet Paul but she's warming up. Get that coffee over here."

Paul handed it to her. "This is my fault," he mumbled.

"Shut up. This isn't the time. Talk to her." He sat down on the little bit of space left on the couch next to his wife's curled up body and spoke to her gently, "Steph? What happened? Talk to me please. Or talk to Nikki."

Stephanie did not react or say anything. "She has been taking her meds, right?" Nikki asked Paul.

"Uh... I don't know."

Nikki looked at him accusingly. "You don't know if she's taking her meds?"

"I just... trusted her to do it. I mean, I think she is."

"Well how many should she have left?"

"I don't know."

"For fuck's sake," Nikki hissed. "When did she last get some?"

"Uh... it's been some time. I guess she shouldn't have too many left."

"Okay, go find them and see how many she has." Paul hurried out of the room again cursing himself for his failure to do his job as a husband and help his wife. It had occurred to Nikki straight away that Stephanie might be off her meds and yet he had never even considered it. Quickly he found Stephanie's meds and there were way more pills left in the plastic bottle than there should have been. He closed his eyes and sighed as he realised that for some time Stephanie had not been taking her medication. "Damn it Steph, why?" He headed back downstairs and showed the bottle to Nikki. "She's not been taking them. For some time too by the look of it."

Nikki closed her eyes and rested her head on top of Stephanie's, "What were you thinking Steph?"

Paul noticed that Nikki had put the coffee on the floor presumably as Stephanie would not drink it. He picked it up and sat next to her again and tried to get her to drink it, or even to get any kind of reaction from her. "Steph drink this please. You're really cold and we need to get you warm." Stephanie did not do anything so he put the cup to her lips and started to tip it gently towards her.

"Paul..." Nikki cautioned.

"We need to get this into her." Paul insisted and was delighted when he saw Stephanie begin to drink some of the coffee. He poured it in little mouthfuls for her that she could manage easily. She drank roughly two thirds of the cup before she stopped swallowing and he spilled a small amount onto her chin and also onto the blanket. "Well done honey," he said gently as he wiped the liquid from her chin. "Now can you tell us what happened?"

Again there was no response. Nikki tried an approach that Paul would not have thought of, he would have thought that Stephanie would think that he was patronising or insulting her somehow. She spoke very softly and almost sounded to him like she was talking to a child, "Steph you're safe here. This is your special place now. Nothing can happen to you here, I'll take care of you."

Stephanie finally spoke in a very quiet and distant voice, "This isn't my special place."

Paul had no clue what anyone was talking about by this point but at least Stephanie had said something and that was obviously progress. "Okay," Nikki continued in her very soothing, comforting voice. "So tell me why that place is special? Why do you feel safe at the end of the garden?"

"The last time I saw my mom," Stephanie blurted out, starting to cry.

Now Paul remembered it. One afternoon in the summer the whole family had been in the garden and the weather had been ridiculously hot. Stephanie and Linda had sat talking in the shade of the tree at the bottom of the garden. He remembered Linda standing up when Vince announced that it was time for them to leave and she had kissed Stephanie and said, "I'll see you next week." There had been no next week for Linda. Paul also realised that before Stephanie had been on her meds he had seen her sitting there and he had not made the connection. Again he told himself that he was a useless husband and should have put two and two together. As he was thinking this through Nikki had said, "You don't need to sit there for your mom to be close to you. I'm sure she watches you all the time. She doesn't want to see you like this Steph, does she?"

"I don't want to be like this. I don't want to live any more," Stephanie mumbled, her words cutting into Paul like a knife.

"Don't say that sweetheart," Nikki comforted, "Don't say that ever. What about the girls?"

"Right, the girls," Stephanie mumbled, then Nikki added, "And Paul."

Stephanie did not say anything in response to that and Paul felt another dagger stab into his heart, "What about me Steph?"

Nikki's eyes and facial expression screamed at him to shut up so he did and Nikki continued, "Steph can you tell me why you're not taking your meds?"

After a moment she provided a mumbled answer, "Didn't need them. John died."

"You do need them sweetheart." Nikki stroked Stephanie's hair with one hand, "You need to always take them. Can you do that for me?"

"Yes."

"And when I'm not here Paul needs you take them for him. Can you do that?"

"Yes."

"You're not alone Steph, when you feel like this you can talk to me or you can talk to Paul."

"Paul doesn't understand, he doesn't help me."

The sadness in his wife's voice was almost unbearable for Paul. He had been trying his best for her and this was the result. It was devastating and he felt like such a failure. "I try my best!"

Nikki glared at him and silently mouthed the words, "Go away." As he left the room Paul realised that Stephanie was actually right, he did not understand and he had not helped her at all. If Nikki had not been there tonight he would have had no idea how to get through to her. Had he lost his wife? Did she need to go back to therapy? He sat at the kitchen table and put his head in his hands in despair.


	13. Chapter 13

Paul sat at the kitchen table for what seemed like hours, fighting the temptation to go back into the living room and find out what progress Nikki had made with Stephanie. He assumed that they were still talking as Nikki had not called him in there for any reason. "Just get her through this Nikki and I won't let her down again," He mumbled to himself. Eventually he heard Nikki call for him as softly as she could whilst still being loud enough for him to hear. Quickly he went into the living room hoping to find Stephanie sitting up and chatting but they were both still the way he had left them, with Nikki holding his wife in her arms. The only difference was that the blankets had been thrown to the floor now that Stephanie was not cold. "Steph? Are you okay?"

No response came but Nikki asked, "Can you carry her up to bed Paul?"

"Steph say something to me please?" Paul pleaded.

"I'm tired," Stephanie mumbled.

"I got her to take her pill and we've been talking," Nikki informed him. "I'm going to spend the night with her and make sure she's okay."

"Nikki I can spend the night with her, you can go home. I can take care of her."

"No Paul, you can't," Nikki replied, sounding reluctant to say it. "Not tonight anyway."

Devastated and angered by her implication Paul demanded, "What did she tell you?"

Nikki avoided answering his question, "Just carry her upstairs Paul and I'll keep talking to her. No more questions, okay?"

"Steph I love you." Paul told his wife as he picked her up in his arms. "I'm sorry that I've not been here for you but it's not going to happen again. I'll be here no matter what happens. I love you." He repeated it as he hoped that she would in turn repeat it to him but instead she just hid her face in his chest as he carried her up the stairs. He carried her into their bedroom and gently set her down on the bed before placing a soft kiss on her lips, "Please be okay." He walked out of the room and led Nikki, who had followed him up the stairs, away by her arm, far enough away for them to not be heard by Stephanie. "Nikki tell me what she said to you."

Nikki walked into the bedroom that they were standing outside of which she guessed belonged to Aurora as she looked around it. She sat on the bed and Paul sat next to her as she cautioned him, "I don't want you to panic Paul as I'm still going to talk to her tonight."

"Just tell me Nikki."

"She's convinced that you think she's a bad wife and a bad mom and that she has nobody apart from me that she can rely on. She wants to leave you. She thinks that you and the girls would be better off without her."

"I don't think any of those things Nikki," Paul insisted, feeling frustration threatening to overwhelm him. "I think I might have to take her back to therapy."

"I don't think that's necessary," Nikki said quickly. "She just needs to be back on her meds. I can't believe you didn't make sure she was taking them"

"I just trusted her," he said, feeling useless.

"Well don't god damn it. She's your wife and she's sick, that means you do everything you can to make sure she's okay no matter how much it irritates you or her. Have you got that?"

He nodded and Nikki stood up, "I'll spend the night with her and we'll talk some more and I'll make sure she feels safe. Hopefully things will be better in the morning. At least she's back on the meds now. Make sure she never misses one again, ever."

"I will."

As Nikki left the room she ordered, "Call Vince and tell him I won't be home tonight and tell him what's happened."

A few seconds later Paul heard their bedroom door close behind Nikki and he looked up to the heavens, "Please, just a little help. That's all I ask." There was nothing else he could do so he did as Nikki had asked and called Vince.

"Hi Paul is Nikki still with you?" The older man opened.

"Uh... yeah she's here. She's staying here tonight."

"Why would she do that?" Vince asked, clearly confused by the idea.

"We've got a problem. Steph hasn't been taking her meds and she's had a relapse or something."

Vince did not say anything for a moment as presumably the shock of the news was hitting him but eventually his voice came back on the line, "You weren't making sure she took them?"

"No Vince I wasn't. I already went through this with Nikki, okay? I know that this is my fault."

Vince could tell that Paul was upset and angry with himself already and therefore decided that reading him the riot act would not help. "What's happened? Where's Steph? Can I talk to her?"

"I can't even talk to her," Paul informed the older man, "She will only talk to Nikki. She said she wants to leave me and the girls."

"She said what?" Vince asked, voice rising and sounding incredulous.

"You heard me. She thinks that I think she's a bad wife and a bad mother and she wants out."

"Surely she doesn't mean that. Where is she now?"

"Nikki took her to bed. She's going to spend the night in there with her and try and help her so I guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens in the morning."

"Do you want me to come over?"

"Thanks Vince but no. Nikki made it clear that I have to leave them alone so that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to call Marissa and check on the girls, okay?"

"Okay, take care Paul. Call me tomorrow as soon as you can, I'll be awake."

"Okay." With that Paul ended the call and immediately dialled Marissa who told him that she had told the girls that Stephanie was not well and that she would be better tomorrow and they could go home then. She said that she did not think that the girls had bought it. Neither did Paul.


	14. Chapter 14

Paul felt himself shaking. No, he was not shaking, someone was shaking him. "Paul? Wake up." His wife's voice made him open his eyes and he tried to focus on her as she leaned over him. Was he still dreaming? Where was he?

"He's awake, finally." Stephanie said, speaking to someone who Paul could not see.

"Give him this." Nikki's voice.

He sat up as he tried to clear the fog from his mind and heard, "Take this, drink it."

Blinking repeatedly and shaking the cobwebs from his mind he was finally able to focus more clearly on his wife as she held a cup of coffee towards him, "Steph?"

"It's two pm Paul." Nikki's voice again. "Time to get up."

Yawning he looked in the direction that the voice had came from, "Nikki?"

"Drink some of this and wake up," Stephanie said. He took the cup from his wife and drank some of the strong coffee. Again he focussed on his wife as she stood looking down at him. He still was not sure that he was not imagining this or dreaming. She looked beautiful as she usually did, not like the piece of human wreckage that he had carried in from the garden the night before. "Steph? Are you okay?"

"Better than yesterday."

No shit! That was the response he almost gave but instead but he asked, "What happened?"

It was Nikki who answered, "I told you I would talk to her Paul. Wake yourself up and we can talk."

"Sorry," Paul yawned again, "Did you just say it's two pm?"

"Yes it is," Stephanie confirmed. "You've been asleep on that couch all day. I guess lack of sleep caught up to you."

"Steph go take your shower please and make sure you're ready for when the girls get home." Nikki ordered.

Paul noticed that it seemed that Nikki talked to Stephanie like she was her mother or something and he also noticed that Stephanie did as she was told without a word. How was Nikki this good with her? He just did not get it. Now that Stephanie was out of the room Nikki sat down on the couch next to him. "Good news or bad?" She asked.

"Good, definitely."

Nikki put her hand on his leg, "She doesn't want to leave you. You or the girls."

Paul felt the relief wash over him, "I don't care what the bad news is then. If we're together we can work anything out."

"That's the right attitude Paul but you should know that she blames you for this. No matter what I say she keeps talking about you not supporting her and telling her she's a bad wife."

"I never said that Nikki!" The frustration inside of him was close to overflowing once more. All he had tried to do was talk to Stephanie and it had led to all of this heartache, and he was not sure how.

"I know that Paul but she won't have it. I guess she needs to hear it from you, I don't know." Nikki sounded dejected. "I did what I could."

Paul hugged her which seemed to take her by surprise, "Nikki you don't realise what you've done. You really don't. It took like two weeks of therapy to get her back last time and that was before we even started to work on her memory. You're a miracle worker, we'd both be lost without you. Thank you so much. I can't thank you enough."

"That means a lot to me," Nikki said, eyes damp with tears.

"Did you say the girls are coming home?" Paul asked next.

"Yes," Nikki confirmed, wiping at her eyes. "I called Marissa and told her what happened, she's bringing them home soon."

"Steph's not going to, well, go off again is she?" Paul asked, unsure if having the girls come home was the best course of action. "I mean, the girls don't need to see that."

"I really don't think it's going to happen again as long as you take care of her and make sure she takes those meds. I don't mean to upset you but you made a piss poor job of it before."

Despite the fact that he knew Nikki was right Paul reacted heatedly, "You're going to sit there and tell me I made a bad job of taking care of my wife?"

"No, I said you made a piss poor job of it. Also in case it's not obvious to you if you don't improve you're going to lose her. This isn't me having a dig at you Paul, I'm just telling you the way it is so engage your brain and take this in. She's recovering from being seriously ill and you can't rely on her to take her meds or to necessarily think about things the way that you or I would do. You have to make sure she takes those meds Paul, even if you have to force her to."

"Sorry Nikki, you're right." He could see why Stephanie listened to Nikki so easily, she just had a certain way with words and a soothing quality to her voice that made you listen. "Nikki what do I say to her? I just don't know how to talk to her like you do," he admitted after draining his cup of coffee.

"I don't know what you want me to tell you Paul," Nikki shrugged. "There's no hidden trick to it. I just talk to her. Just do your best, either it's good enough or it isn't."

"This is my marriage we're talking about!" Paul yelled, reacting to the almost offhanded way that Nikki had spoken.

"I know that Paul but it is what it is," Nikki tried to placate him. "Steph will either trust you to be there for her in the future or she won't. I can't do everything for you, she's not my wife."

"Sorry, you're right," Paul backed down a little. "Don't worry, I'll take care of her every step of the way from now on."

"And I'll be there on Thursday nights when she's away," Nikki added.

"You didn't tell her she could carry on working?" Paul demanded loudly.

"Again you're not with it. This is your problem, you don't take in what works for her and what doesn't. I already told you before, if you try and stop her from working you'll make it worse. She focusses on it Paul. If anything it gives her a break from her problems."

"So you're saying it's a good idea to let her go to Raw on Monday?" Paul rubbed his forehead in frustration.

"Yes," Nikki nodded firmly, "And I'm saying it would be a terrible idea to even mention keeping her away from work. Are we clear on that?"

"Yes." At that moment Paul and Nikki both heard car doors slamming and yelling voices from outside. "The girls are home," Paul exclaimed, standing and hurrying across the room towards the door.

"I'm going to ask Marissa if she would mind driving me home, I've not slept," Nikki said as she followed him. "Will you be okay?"

"Yes." They reached the front door but before opening it Paul hugged Nikki again, "Thank you Nikki, for everything you've done."

"You're welcome, I'd do anything for Steph, I mean that. You and the girls too."

Someone began pounding on the front door so Paul opened it up. As he did so the girls all flooded in all at the same time and he hugged each of them in turn, "Hey! How are you all?" Murphy and Vauhn chirped that they were okay but Aurora asked, "Where mom?"

"Right here baby." Everyone turned to see Stephanie walking down the stairs. Paul again thought that she looked so beautiful, even with her damp hair which she had presumably been about to start drying when she heard the girls arrival home. Compared to the way she had looked the previous night when he carried her into the house she looked like a totally different person. He watched as the girls piled onto her and he had never felt so happy. He had not noticed that Marissa was standing next to him until she whispered, "Is she okay?"

He nodded and whispered back, "Thank you for last night."

"Marissa could I be a nuisance and ask for a ride home?" Nikki asked as Marissa greeted Paul's news with a smile.

"Of course," Marissa agreed without hesitation.

"Steph?" Nikki said gently. "I'm going to go now. Will you be okay?"

Stephanie walked over to Nikki and Paul watched as the two women hugged and he saw that they were whispering to each other but it was too quiet for anyone else to hear what was being said. It went on for more than a minute before they separated. He saw that Nikki had tears in her eyes but he did not detect any sign of sadness. If it was not obvious what Nikki and Stephanie meant to each other before then it was plain as day at that moment as Stephanie said, "Girls say goodbye to Grandma Nikki."

The children all went over to Nikki and she began to hug them in turn. Waiting for her turn Murphy said, "We didn't say hello yet so we can't say bye."

"Say both then," Paul laughed. When the girls were finished with her Nikki walked over to Paul and he hugged her once more, "I don't know what to say apart from thank you, again."

"I'll see you both Monday," Nikki almost whispered to him. "Don't mess this up Paul. I love you guys."

Marissa smiled and touched Paul's arm as she said, "See you soon Steph," and just like that she and Nikki were out of the front door and they were gone.


	15. Chapter 15

As the front door closed behind Marissa and Nikki Paul turned to talk to Stephanie but she was already leading the girls into the living room which meant that her back was to him, her damp hair in a messy ponytail, seemingly forgotten about. Already he detected a change in atmosphere that made him feel a little on edge. By the time he got into the living room Stephanie had sat on the couch and Murphy and Aurora were climbing up on either side of her and Vaughn was climbing onto her lap. Stephanie was saying, "Let's see what cartoons are on, hey look it's SpongeBob!"

The girls all yelled their excitement, SpongeBob was one of their favourites. As there was no space for him on the couch with Stephanie and the girls Paul went and sat on the room's other couch by himself. He desperately wanted to talk to Stephanie but this was obviously not the time with the girls there and with them all now laughing at the cartoon on the TV.

"Mommy could use some fresh air," Stephanie announced after they had watched two episodes. "Who wants to go... play tree houses?"

As the girls all yelled their excitement Paul knew what Stephanie meant. There was a small forested area a few miles away from their house that had a visitor center and a kids play area. The play area was all constructed from wood and there were swings and slides and all kinds of wooden structures to climb in and around. The girls had gotten to call them tree houses even though that was not what they were. It was one of their favourite places to go and play. Paul liked the idea, the family all always enjoyed their trips there and he could use the fresh air too because his very extended sleep on the couch had left him with a headache. Maybe there would even be a chance to talk to Stephanie during the outing too. "Good idea," he said. "You need to get changed though girls. Put some old clothes on because you'll get dirty."

The children all raced upstairs and Stephanie followed them. Paul unsurprisingly had not missed the fact that she had not spoken a word to him since Nikki had left. Maybe if they went out together and had a nice time she would open up to him? He waited at the bottom on the stairs and eventually the girls came bouncing back down. Stephanie followed them as she ordered, "Coats on please, it's cold outside." Reaching the bottom of the stairs she sighed, "Not that one Murphy you know you don't play in that coat. Come on girls, get your hats and your gloves."

"Steph?" Paul asked, wondering himself why he sounded so hesitant.

"What?" Stephanie turned to him, but sounded irritated to have to do so.

"Uh... are you okay?"

"I'm trying to get the girls ready Paul, maybe you could help instead of standing there?" Stephanie started to put her own coat on.

His wife's harsh words had Paul feeling guilty so he did as she had asked and helped Vaughn to put on her hat and her gloves. After he had done that he picked up Stephanie's own hat and gloves and held them out to her, "You too, I don't want you to get ill. You got too cold yesterday."

"I'll be fine," she said, not taking the items from him.

"Just put them on Steph." She snatched them from him and put them on. As she got her hands comfortable in the leather gloves she demanded, "Happy now?"

He was tempted to say, "Not with you acting like this. What's wrong with you?" but he resisted and said nothing. "Come on!" Aurora pleaded from the doorway. "It will get dark before we get there!"

Stephanie picked up her keys and headed outside. "We'll have at least an hour before dark when we get there, don't be silly."

Paul followed his family out of the house and closed the door. He was glad that Stephanie seemed to be functioning normally with the girls but he could tell that things were still a long way from good between himself and his wife. It was obvious that what Nikki had said was true, Stephanie blamed him for what had happened yesterday. This was going to be difficult. Silently cursed himself for going to her with his stupid insecurities and pushing her over the edge. As usual he had done totally the wrong thing. Maybe she would be better off without him? He told himself not to think like that as he got in the front passenger seat of the car.

* * *

It did not take long for Stephanie to drive them to their destination. Paul noticed that again Stephanie only talked to the girls and not to him during the journey and it was close to torture. All he wanted to do was talk to her, he could not wait until later that night when the kids were in bed and she would not be able to use them to avoid talking to him which appeared to be what she was doing. As Stephanie parked the car the kids piled out and began to run off towards the play area. "Hey! Not out of my sight!" Stephanie yelled.

The girls obediently stopped and waited as Stephanie hurried after them. Paul caught up too and tried to take his wife's hand. He was pleased when she let him but then realised that he had so much work to do to get things back to how they used to be if he was actually pleased to be allowed to hold her hand. This was the mother of his three children and now it was something of note to hold her hand.

"Go on then, have fun!" Stephanie told the girls as they reached the play area. "I don't want to see any cuts or bruises though!"

The girls raced off and Vaughn headed straight for the swings. "Push me on the swing!" She yelled excitedly when she got there.

Stephanie headed towards her, "Sorry? I don't think I heard that right?"

"Push me please mommy!"

"Steph, can I?" Paul asked, wanting to be involved but feeling so awkward. She did not say anything but she made a hand gesture that seemed to indicate that he could fulfil Vaughn's request in her place. Paul helped Vaughn onto the swing and began to gently push her.

"Higher!" She yelled and he obliged, pushing her a little harder. Wanting to join in the fun Murphy bounced over.

"Me too!" She yelled as she climbed onto the other swing next to her sister and Stephanie began to push her.

After a couple of minutes of this Paul finally felt at least somewhere close to happy, "This is nice, Steph. We can talk later, right?"

"This isn't the time Paul." Stephanie sounded very irritated which in turn irritated Paul despite how crucial he knew it was not to have another argument or more upset for Stephanie. "I said later didn't I?" He almost growled.

"I want to stop," Murphy requested. "Want to stop now please."

Stephanie stopped her swing and lifted Murphy off it, setting her down beside to her before turning to Paul, her anger obvious, "Don't take that tone with me."

"Steph, let's not argue okay?"

"Who's arguing?" Stephanie's voice began to rise. "I told you not to speak to me like I'm a piece of crap."

"Not in front of the girls Steph, please!"

"So you'll save treating me like shit for when they're not around huh?" She hissed. Paul attempted to put an arm around her in an attempt to calm her down but she shoved him away, "Get off me! Get away from me!"

"Steph, stop! Please don't do this. What's wrong with you? I love you." Before he even finished he noticed that Stephanie's attention had drifted from him and she was looking around the play area instead. "Paul?" She asked.

"What?"

"Where's Murphy?"

"You just put her right there," Paul said, now looking around himself.

Stephanie yelled, "Aurora! Is your sister up there with you?"

Aurora's head popped up from the top of a nearby wooden structure which she had climbed onto, "What?"

"I said is Murphy in there with you?"

"She was on the swing with you."

Paul frantically looked around for a sign of his daughter, she should have been easy to pick up in her bright red coat but there was no sign of her anywhere. There was hardly anyone around due to the cold weather and the quite late time of day. He looked carefully at the few other people who were in sight and there was no sign of Murphy. His daughter was gone.


	16. Chapter 16

"She's going to blame me for this, I know it. This is it, we're done. This is how our marriage is going to end," Paul thought as he scanned the area for his missing daughter.

Stephanie also looked around desperately for any sign of Murphy. A wave of shock and guilt hit her like a lightning bolt and it somehow brought her back to reality. "What the hell am I doing?" She thought. "Why am I treating my husband this way? He does his best for me and this is what I give him? I need help. But first we have to find Murphy."

Paul braced himself for the full force of her anger as she turned around but then he heard, "I'm so sorry Paul. We need to talk, but where could she have gone?"

* * *

As they had been arguing neither Paul or Stephanie had noticed a little black dog come trotting past them but Murphy had noticed it. She had reached out to pet it but it trotted away before she could reach it and she instinctively followed it, wanting only to pet it.

The dog picked up an interesting scent at that moment and set off into the forest to track down what it was.

Murphy followed after the little dog and totally lost track of how far she had walked until she suddenly remembered that she was not allowed to run away out of mommy's sight like this. Mommy would be angry with her as well as daddy now. She needed to head back to them quickly. She spun around but which trail had she been on? She was not sure and now everything looked the same to her without any leaves on the trees. Maybe if she followed the dog it would go back the way it had came? She spun around again but the dog was no where to be seen. Now what? Think what Dad or Mommy would do. Dad is very clever. Stick to the trail, that's what he would do. Picking what she thought was the right trail she turned and ran for it, yelling, "Mommy! Dad!"

* * *

"She can't be far away. Steph? You're not angry?" Paul asked back at the play area, stunned by yet another rapid change in his wife's personality.

"I think I need help Paul but first we need to find Murphy. Focus."

Finally Paul did just that and focussed on what he should have been, the whereabouts of his daughter. "Where could she have gone? Back to the car?"

"Maybe," Stephanie said. "Check around the play area first and then take Aurora and Vaughn back there. I'll go and search around. I have my phone, call me if you find her."

As Stephanie headed off to begin her search Paul picked up Vaughn in his arms and went and searched the rest of the play area. Finding no sign of Murphy he ordered loudly, "Aurora come down here please. We're heading back to the car."

Aurora appeared out of the wooden structure she was in and whined, "We just got here dad." Then she looked around in confusion, "Where's mom? Where's Murphy?"

"Back to car sweetheart, please," Paul ordered, unsure what else to say.

"Wait! You asked me where she was and now mom's not... You don't know where Murphy is!"

Paul grabbed his daughter's hand and started to lead her away, "Your mom has gone to find her sweetheart. We've got to wait in the car."

Vaughn began to whimper and Aurora said, "I want to help mom."

"Just do as I say please, be a good girl."

Aurora stopped walking and insisted, "I'm helping mom."

"You're coming back to the car even if I have to carry you and your mom will find out about this," Paul warned. That stopped any protests. Paul knew that he was a great dad to his girls but he also knew that he was way too soft on them as far as discipline was concerned. They all knew that if dad told mom that they had been behaving badly with him that was when they got into real trouble. They headed back towards the car in silence with Paul desperately hoping he would find Murphy there.

* * *

Stephanie searched around the area and found no sign of her daughter. "The only other place she can be is in the forest," she thought. "Unless someone has taken her." That thought brought tears to her eyes. "Don't let something happen to my baby girl because of me," she pleaded aloud. "Please, anything but that. I'll take my meds, I'll work things out with Paul, I'll do anything, just let my baby be okay." She headed towards the trail that led into the forest noticing as she did so that the sun was setting over the top of the trees. "Murphy? Where are you?" She yelled, panicking. Her legs nearly collapsed under her with relief when she heard a distant shout, "Mommy?"

"Over here baby," Stephanie yelled as loudly as she could, taking off down the trail at a full sprint. "Where are you?"

"I'm here!" Her daughter's voice sounded closer.

As she ran around a corner Stephanie saw Murphy running towards her and she burst into tears in relief, "There you are baby, come here." Murphy began to cry too as she ran over and leapt into Stephanie's arms, "Mommy."

"My baby. I was so worried about you." Stephanie picked her up and held her tightly as she carried her back along the trail.

"You're not angry mommy?" Murphy asked through her tears.

"No I'm not angry, I love you so much."

"You were angry before, you were angry with Dad."

Stephanie held her even tighter, "I wasn't angry darling, mommy is sick."

"Will you be okay?" Murphy asked, sounding worried.

Stephanie heard her phone ringing in her pocket but she could not answer it without putting her daughter down and she was not prepared to do that. "I'll be okay. I have to take some medicine and speak to your Dad but I'll be okay."

"I worry about you mommy."

"I'll be okay baby." Stephanie could not stop the tears from streaming down her face.

Eventually they reached the parking lot and Stephanie saw Paul standing near the car with his phone in his hand. He had called her three times during her walk back to the car. He saw them approaching and ran over, "Oh my God, you found her. Murphy, are you okay sweetheart?" Stephanie handed Murphy over to him and he hugged and kissed her, "You worried us darling, don't run off like that again, ever. Okay?."

"Sorry Dad." Murphy began crying again. Paul noticed that tears were also pouring down his wife's face and set Murphy down on the ground, "Get in the car please baby, it's okay now."

Murphy did as she was told and Paul walked over to Stephanie who was still standing exactly where she had been when she had handed Murphy to him. Expecting her to resist him he gently took hold of her, pleased that she did not. "Steph, I love you."

"I love you too. Help me Paul, please help me."

"It's going to be okay now honey, you're never going to feel like this again." Paul assured her as he held her tightly. "You're back on your meds and I'm not going to let this happen to you again, I promise."


	17. Chapter 17

Vince McMahon and Nikki Bella were about to have a very different kind of evening. Vince had made a decision a few days earlier but after what had happened the previous day he had decided that he could wait no more. Some people would say it was crazy to rush things like this but if he had learned one thing in these last few months it was that no one was around forever, certainly not people at his time of life.

Nikki walked into their living room dressed in an expensive dark purple dress. "Do I look okay? I really would rather put this off Vince, I told you I was awake with Steph nearly the whole night last night and I don't feel too great."

Vince kissed her, "You look beautiful. It has to be tonight, I promise you'll enjoy it."

"Then let's go," she smiled. "I must admit that I'm hungry." Vince looked into her gorgeous dark eyes and knew that he would not regret what he was going to do.

* * *

Pushing her empty plate away from herself slightly Nikki failed to hide a yawn, "That was amazing Vince, we should eat at places like this more often."

"We will," Vince smiled. "Would you like dessert?"

"I don't think I could, I'm so full. You order one if you like, I'll be right back." As he watched her leave the table Vince guessed that she was heading to the bathroom. This was the perfect opportunity he had been waiting for. A few minutes later Nikki returned to the table and wondered what Vince was grinning about, even more so when she questioned him and he denied that he was doing it. They chatted for a few minutes until a server approached them and put a dessert in front of Vince. He then put a plate in front of Nikki but it was covered with a metal lid so that she could not see what was on it.

"Vince!" She exclaimed. "I said I didn't want anything. Are you trying to make me fat?"

"No I'm not," Vince laughed. Nikki lifted the metal cover from the plate and saw that there was no food there, instead there was a silver ring. "I'm trying to make you my wife, If you'll marry me?"

Nikki let out a little scream as her hands flew to her face, covering both of her cheeks, her nose and her mouth. Vince saw her eyes fill with tears. After a moment she managed to remove her hands from her face and delightedly announce, "Yes! Yes, of course I will marry you."

The server watched Vince place the very expensive looking ring on her finger. "Congratulations," he wished them both, wondering how the old bastard was this lucky? Obviously he must be a rich guy. What other reason could there be? "Can I get you a drink to celebrate?"

Vince ordered champagne and as the server walked away he took Nikki's hands, "I love you Nikki. You're a truly beautiful woman and I can say without fear of offending Linda, god bless her, that you are the most kind hearted person I've ever met. What you've done for me and my family since we've been together I couldn't have hoped for from anyone. I couldn't be happier to spend the rest of my life with you."

"I love you so much," Nikki managed to get out past the lump in her throat.

"I'm sorry I didn't do the whole one knee thing but at my age..."

"Shut up there's plenty of life left in you yet," Nikki laughed.

"Are you sure about that?" Vince grinned.

"Let's go home and find out," Nikki whispered suggestively.

Vince's eyes widened, "But I just ordered champagne."

"So cancel it."

Vince did not need to be told twice.

* * *

As Vince drove them home Nikki could not believe what had happened. She had hoped that she would be with Vince for the rest of his life but she had never imagined that he would want to remarry. There was only one thing that worried her, how would the rest of the family take the news? Sure, they had all been very welcoming and accepted her as Vince's partner but would they consider marriage to be offending Linda's memory somehow? Even if Shane was fine with the idea it was anyone's guess as to how Stephanie would react when she found out. She decided to speak to Vince about it. "Vince? Do we tell Shane and Steph right away?"

"Shane won't be a problem, he likes you. You're really asking me about Steph aren't you?"

"Well, yes," Nikki admitted.

"She loves you Nikki we both know that but, well, you know what she's like since Linda died. Who knows what will happen in her head? At least she's back on her meds now though."

"It was awful to see her so scared and confused Vince," Nikki told him sadly. "I can't believe Paul didn't keep track of her meds."

"If you weren't there Nikki it would have been worse. She really loves you and she trusts you and Paul's doing his best. He'll make sure she's taking them from now on."

"I love her too," Nikki said. "I just hope this doesn't change things between us." After a minute or two of silence Nikki realised that bringing this up had killed the happy mood between them. "Vince? guess what I have on under this dress?" She asked mischievously.

He turned his head and looked at her and she could see how badly he wanted her. "Watch the road!" She giggled. "I said guess not find out now."

"I don't know?" Vince said, returning his focus to the road.

"Nothing," Nikki informed him seductively. It was not true but it would make sure he was ready for her when they got home.


	18. Chapter 18

When they had arrived back home Stephanie had gone straight to bed. Paul had told the girls that she did not feel well and that she would be okay tomorrow. He was sure that every time they heard that it became less convincing and less believable but what else could he say? Hopefully this would be the last time, he told himself. He sent the kids to bed as early as he could possibly get away with and read them their necessary bed time stories. In truth all he wanted to do was go and speak to his wife. He was pleased that she had finally asked him for help, maybe this was the breakthrough and she would stop relying so heavily on Nikki and also stop shutting him out? He desperately hoped so as he feared for their marriage if things did not improve soon. Eventually he had kissed Aurora goodnight and closed her bedroom door quietly behind him. It was time to go and find out what awaited him in his own bedroom. He walked up to the door and took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Please just talk to me Steph," he thought. Opening the door he saw that the light was off and wondered if Stephanie was asleep but then he heard her soft voice, "Paul? Get into bed."

He quickly undressed and did as she asked. "Hold me?" She asked him.

Again he did as he was asked, wrapping an arm around her stomach. He wished she would face him but he was not going to try and tell her what to do. "Please talk to me honey, I want to help you but I don't know how."

"I don't know how to talk about it," Stephanie said quietly.

"Just talk," Paul urged as gently as he could manage. "Like you do with Nikki."

There was a long silence and he thought that she was not going to say anything but eventually she began, "Shane lost mom and he's happy with Marissa. Dad lost mom and he's happy with Nikki. Why can't we be happy? It's all my fault."

She sounded so sad that it hurt Paul deeply. "It's not your fault Steph, you just took it harder than everyone else. It made you ill, that doesn't mean it's your fault."

"But I treated you like crap and you're trying your best for me. You were right I am a terrible wife and a terrible mother."

"I never said that to you. Do you hear me? I never said that. You made that up in your own head and it's not true. We can all be happy again honey, I'm here for you but you need to take your meds."

Finally she turned to face him and even in the dark he could make out the tears on her cheeks, "You need to take them from me and then make sure that I take them. I don't trust myself any more."

"If that's what you need Steph then that's what I'll do," he assured her.

"I get scared and confused and I feel so alone."

"That's only when you're not on your meds though, take them and you'll be fine."

"No it's not," Stephanie insisted. "It's every time I think about mom. I miss her so much."

Paul thought back to what he had noticed earlier when Nikki had told Stephanie to take her shower, how they had acted almost like mother and daughter. He really did not know if it was a good idea to say it but he took Nikki's advice and just talked, "You have a step-mom now Steph." He was not sure what to expect in response to that.

"Nikki doesn't think of me like that."

"Yes she does," Paul insisted, smiling. "I've seen the way you two are together and how much she cares for you. As long as you've got me and you've got Nikki you have nothing to be scared of and you're definitely not alone."

They spent another hour talking before Stephanie drifted off to sleep in his arms. Paul at last felt like they were making some real progress. For the last six months their lives had been heading from one disaster to another at a faster pace than anyone would believe was possible. Hopefully it was all behind them now.

* * *

Sunday was the best day Paul could remember, in recent times at least. They spent the whole day together as a family playing games and watching TV and Stephanie made an amazing dinner for everyone. Stephanie and the kids all seemed happy and it was a huge relief to Paul. He had genuinely started to believe that there would never be another day like this. Stephanie had insisted that she would read all of the bed time stories and as he waited for her to come back downstairs he fetched a glass of wine for each of them. Sitting and relaxing on the couch he found himself thinking about how much less stressed he felt already after one normal day with his family as he made a start on his glass of red. He felt like at last he had his wife back, or at least they were getting close to that point. At that moment Stephanie walked into the room. "Hey, you know what I was thinking?" She asked.

"No, what?" Paul smiled.

She surprised him by sitting on his lap, facing him. "I was thinking it's been too long since we enjoyed a bottle of wine and went to bed early."

Unsurprisingly Paul liked the sound of that. "Bed? We don't need to go to bed."

"I suppose we don't need this either," Stephanie giggled as she stole his wine glass from him, finishing the drink herself.

"I'll get you for that!" He shoved her down onto the couch, causing the empty glass to fall to the floor, luckily not breaking.

"Don't even think about tickling me!" Stephanie laughed as she playfully tried to fight him off.

"What like this?" He tickled her relentlessly and she laughed uncontrollably in between squeals of things like, "Get off me!" and "You'll wake the kids!"

Eventually he showed mercy. "I love you baby, today has been the best day."

"Shut up and kiss me." Stephanie ordered, lust in her eyes. She grabbed the front of his t-shirt and pulled him down on top of her and they kissed.

Twice that night they had incredible, passionate sex, something that had not happened for ages. Paul really did have his wife back. She had not acted like this for so long, and it felt so good.


	19. Chapter 19

"As I said I'm really pleased for you. I'm just saying be careful about the way you approach telling Steph about it." Paul cautioned his father in law as they boarded the plane to fly out for Raw. Vince had just told him the news about Nikki agreeing to marry him. He knew Stephanie and Nikki would arrive soon and he hoped that Stephanie would take the news as well as she should do.

Vince laughed as he took his seat, "I'm not going to tell her anything, Nikki insisted on doing it."

"Don't laugh Vince, I'm serious. Steph was fine yesterday and I don't want her going off the deep end again."

"It'll be fine," Vince assured him, growing serious. "You know how Steph is with Nikki."

Paul hoped that Vince was right but as they waited for Nikki and Stephanie to arrive he found himself silently wishing over and over for Stephanie to show up in a good mood. He had not seen his wife since they had arrived at the office so he did not know what to expect. After a few minutes he recognised her laughter outside the plane and it made him smile. Stephanie and Nikki entered the cabin and Stephanie beamed at Paul with that smile he had always found so attractive, the sides of her nose crinkling slightly. "Hi honey, hi dad," She greeted them both warmly. "Sorry I didn't see you in the office today but I was busy on calls all morning."

Paul looked at her as she took the seat next to him and found himself thinking again that she seemed to be back to her normal self. He realised that he kept thinking it too often but it was just such a pleasant surprise after what they had been through recently. He hoped that things were not about to change for the worse again as he watched Nikki and Vince glance at each other.

"Steph we've got some things to talk about," Vince announced as the jet started to taxi.

"What did I do now?" Stephanie giggled.

Vince laughed nervously, "Well firstly I have the first write up of our match at Survivor Series here. I need you to have a look at the finish and let me know what you think?"

He handed over the sheet of paper and Stephanie read it carefully. Paul had not known that this was going to happen and he did not know what the idea was himself. As Stephanie finished reading she mumbled, "You want me to... Jesus Christ."

"As I said if you're not comfortable with it we can change it," Vince said, "But I think it would be good."

"I'd need to practice it," Stephanie said, after thinking for a few moments.

"Of course but there's plenty of time for that."

"Can I read it?" Paul asked. Stephanie handed over the paper and he read it. "Christ almighty. Steph are you sure you want to do this?"

"Sure that I want to do it? No, but I am going to do it."

"I knew you'd do it," Nikki smiled, speaking for the first time. "You're badass Steph!"

"Thank you." Stephanie sounded nervous. "Uh... I have something to talk about too."

"Can we finish first please?" Vince asked. "Nikki has a couple of pieces of good news."

"Oh okay, sure."

They waited as the plane's engines roared, making conversation impossible as it took off. When they reached cruising altitude Stephanie said, "Come on then Nikki let's hear it."

Paul braced himself in case this went wrong but Nikki did not go with the news that was causing him the concern first up. "Firstly, my parents called me today. It was a tough conversation but I think things will be okay between us now."

"That's fantastic Nikki," Stephanie beamed. "I'm really happy for you. Hey, we need to organise something for Brie and Daniel to come over like we said."

"Yeah we do. Uh.. Steph, I have to make a confession. I've been hiding something from you all day."

Paul saw his wife raise an eyebrow, "Huh?" He was surprised that Nikki was going to approach it this way and he hoped that she knew what she was doing.

Nikki looked down and did not say anything for a moment, making Stephanie wait. "Hiding what?" Stephanie demanded impatiently. "Come on Nikki, hiding what?"

Nikki held out her left hand with the sparkling engagement ring on it. "This."

Stephanie stared at it for a second, "Is that... oh my God."

It was not clear what she was thinking from her tone so Nikki ventured, "Great news huh?"

Paul could tell that Vince and Nikki were as tense as he was. "I don't believe it," Stephanie said.

"But you're pleased, right?" Nikki tried again.

Stephanie unbuckled her seat belt and stood up, leading Paul to expect an explosion but no. "I'm so happy for you," she said excitedly. "It's amazing. Congratulations."

Vince and Nikki stood simultaneously and Vince expected to receive a hug from his daughter but he was disappointed as she went to Nikki first. They hugged and Stephanie asked, "I will be maid of honor, right?"

"Brie will be pissed but yes you can be," Nikki laughed. "I'd love you to be. It's matron of honor though, you're married."

"Yeah you're married, did you forget that?" Paul chirped, happy that his fears had been unfounded.

Stephanie seized the opportunity to embarrass him. "No honey I didn't forget that, remember last night?"

Paul's cheeks reddened as Vince exclaimed, "Stephanie! You're still my little girl."

She hugged him, "Yes I am dad and I love you. You'll be very happy together."

Vince kissed his daughter on the cheek and held onto the hug for as long as he could before she pulled away. He was overjoyed not only at his daughter's reaction to the news but also her apparent recovery from her other problems. Suddenly a thought hit him, "You said you wanted to talk about something?" He asked.

Stephanie sat down and made a dismissive hand gesture, "Yeah but it's about work. Shouldn't we have a drink or something to celebrate?"

"No drinking before the show Steph, you know that. We'll celebrate tonight. Come on, we have at least two hours to kill on this flight, spill."

"Okay. I was thinking... After I lose at Survivor Series and you are 'in charge' what then? We've not planned anything. I thought what if Steph is as good as her word and she leaves but she never actually said anything about Vince being in charge when she was gone did she? What if she hands over her control of the shows to someone else?"

Vince thought about it for a moment and then nodded, "Okay, I like where you're going but who is this someone?"

Stephanie gave a pretend evil grin as she pulled her phone from her pocket and showed him the name on the screen. "Look who I called earlier."

Vince's eyes widened as he read the name, "He agreed to do this?"

"You're God damn right he did," Stephanie confirmed, still grinning.


	20. Chapter 20

Backstage Nikki finally had a few minutes to herself and she decided to take the opportunity to do something that she had been dreading for the past few hours; she went to find Brie. A few minutes later she found Brie and Daniel talking with a group of other wrestlers and cut in as politely as she could, "Brie can I have a word please?"

Brie followed Nikki into a nearby empty meeting room. "What's up Nikki?"

"I need to tell you something," Nikki said. "Two things actually but please don't give me a hard time over it."

Brie realised that obviously she was not going to like whatever this was about but she confirmed, "Yes I can do that."

"Great. Okay, the first thing I have to tell you is that..." She was unable to hide a huge smile, "Vince asked me to marry him!"

Brie screamed in excitement and the twins hugged each other, "I'm really pleased for you Nikki, truly I am..." She backed away from Nikki slightly, "Wait a minute why did you tell me to stay calm? What's the second thing?"

"I told Stephanie that she can be matron of honor," Nikki informed her sister nervously.

"That's what you really want?" Brie asked after a moment of silence.

"It didn't really matter what I wanted," Nikki admitted. "Steph's been struggling again and we weren't sure how she was going to react to the news so when she asked I just said yes."

"Well, I guess you know what to do for the best in situations like that."

"So you're not mad?" Nikki asked hopefully.

"No," Brie smiled, "I'm happy for you Nikki."

Nikki could not keep the joy from showing on her face for the rest of the conversation, she had expected Brie to give her a hard time but no, things were going perfectly.

* * *

That night Raw opened with Paul Heyman in the ring. "Ladies and gentlemen my name is Paul Heyman," he announced as usual. "I am the advocate for the current, reigning and defending WWE heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar." The crowd booed but Heyman continued, "My client Brock Lesnar has authorised me to come here tonight to deliver a message personally to the beloved CEO of WWE Stephanie McMahon. I would be very grateful if you could join me in the ring Mrs. McMahon."

Almost immediately Stephanie's music played and the crowd cheered. Stephanie walked to the ring dressed in a dark grey suit, carrying a sledgehammer. "Here she comes and she's got that damn hammer again," JBL moaned. "What she did to Nikki Bella last Thursday was disgusting, she should be in jail, not out here."

"I will admit that Stephanie went a little too far," Jerry Lawler said, "But after the amount of abuse she's suffered from Nikki Bella and Mr. McMahon over the last few weeks I can't blame her for retaliating."

"We'll have an update on Nikki Bella's condition later tonight," Michael Cole announced.

By this time Stephanie was in the ring and ready to speak to Heyman but she had to wait for a "Steph!" chant to quieten down first. "Paul, you say that your client 'Brock Lesnar' has a message to deliver personally to me, yet it is you that is delivering it. Do you want to explain that to me how that works?"

Some of the crowd laughed at Heyman but he ignored the sarcasm. "My client Brock Lesnar wishes to make you aware that he is not happy with the title match at Survivor Series. The triple threat title match that you, Stephanie McMahon, signed between my client Brock Lesnar," the crowd booed, "Randy Orton," the crowd cheered, "and Daniel Bryan," the crowd exploded into a "Yes!" chant. Heyman waited until he could be heard and continued, "My client Brock Lesnar considers it to be unfair that he can lose his title without actually being beaten and has authorised me to tell you that if that happens he will hold you personally responsible."

Stephanie raised an eyebrow, "Is that supposed to be a threat Paul? You're going to stand in my ring and threaten me? The way it seems to me is that if your client loses his title at Survivor Series without being beaten he has two options on what to do next. The first option is that he can put his tail between his legs, go home and come back the next night and start from the bottom of the ladder. Or there's option number two..." The crowd cheered as they tried to imagine what option number two might be. Another "Steph!" chant broke out then Stephanie continued, "Option number two is that your client can come back through the curtain without his title, find my office, knock on the door, wait for me to open it up and when I do I'll bend over and your client can kiss my ass!" The crowd roared as Heyman blustered away without using his microphone. Stephanie continued once more, "You also mentioned me being personally responsible Paul. How about I give you five seconds to get your ass out of my ring before I do something with this sledgehammer that I'll most definitely be personally responsible for." Heyman ran from the ring as fast as he could and retreated up the ramp as the crowd cheered.

The cheers turned to boos as Mr. McMahon's music played and he walked out onto the stage. Vince was obviously angry as he addressed Stephanie, "Who the hell do you think you are?" The crowd booed and without waiting for an answer Vince continued, "You walk around this place like you're proud of yourself. You should be regretting what you did to Nikki last Thursday..." He was interrupted by an "Asshole!" chant.

"Regret it?" Stephanie asked as if the idea was ludicrous. "I don't regret it at all and at Survivor Series when you get in this ring with me the match is no disqualification which means I can do anything I want to you with this sledgehammer, and it's all legal!"

"Interesting that you want to talk about legal," Vince smirked. "Let's talk about legal. Nikki has decided to file assault charges against you for what you did to her Thursday night." He turned towards the curtain and yelled, "Get out here now!" Four uniformed police officers ran out onto the stage and Vince followed them down to the ring barking orders, "Take her ass away, take her ass away now!"

"Wait a minute! They can't do that!" Michael Cole exclaimed. "Stephanie and Nikki were both involved in a match, there's no way Nikki can possibly file charges for what happened!"

The cops surrounded Stephanie as she dropped her microphone and the sledgehammer to the canvas. She tried to plead her case with the cops that she could not be charged for what happened but eventually the cops convinced her to let them handcuff her hands behind her back. As soon as this happened Vince rolled into the ring and began assaulting her, knocking her down and kicking her around the ring. The crowd booed furiously and Lawler demanded, "What is this? The cops are leaving! What's going on here?"

"This is crap!" Cole raged. "They're not cops, it's a damn setup! Mr. McMahon makes me sick! He's beating up his daughter for God's sake, and she can't even defend herself!"

"He's standing up for his girlfriend," JBL defended the Chairman. "I'd do exactly the same!"

After delivering a few kicks to Stephanie and stomping on her in the corner several times Vince looked over at the hammer lying in the middle of the ring. He walked over and picked it up as Cole yelled, "Don't do it! Don't you dare hit her with that!"

Stephanie tried to get up as Vince waited behind her, ready to swing but suddenly there was a cheer from crowd. "There's Triple H!" Coley yelled. "He's come to save his wife!"

Vince saw Triple H coming and dropped the hammer and bailed out of the ring before Triple H could get his hands on him. Triple H hugged Stephanie as he checked that she was okay. Even though her hands were still cuffed behind her back Stephanie tried to run after Vince as he retreated up the ramp but Triple H grabbed hold of her and stopped her. "The McMahon's are out of control," Lawler said. "I've got a bad feeling about the match at Survivor Series."

"I agree with you King," Cole said next. "Someone's going to get hurt badly at this rate."

"And whoever it is will be gone!" JBL added. "Someone's going for good at Survivor Series!"


	21. Chapter 21

Stephanie was just finishing a meeting with two lovely ladies from a mental health charity. Unsurprisingly this was now something that was close to her heart and she was always keen to work with charities in any case. The meeting had been to discuss the possibility of WWE sending a few superstars to meet some people will mental illnesses and film a few short segments to show on Raw or Smackdown. It was a nice change of pace for a Tuesday afternoon. "Well ladies thank you both for coming in to see me," Stephanie said warmly, standing from behind her desk. "I'll be sure to have someone from my team contact you again to make arrangements."

The two visitors both thanked Stephanie for her time and told her how much the support from WWE would mean to their charity and how much it would help to raise awareness of mental health issues in general. Stephanie had not mentioned that she suffered personally as that was something she chose to keep private for obvious reasons. "It's my pleasure," she said. "This is an area in which people really to increase their understanding. Before you go can we just get a picture together? We'll put it on the website with a write up about what we're going to do. I'll put it on my Twitter too."

The ladies agreed as they left Stephanie's office. "Lucy, take a picture for me," Stephanie ordered and handed her phone over to her secretary. Lucy took the picture and the two ladies shook Stephanie's hand, thanked her again and left. Stephanie reached out and took her phone back from Lucy. That was when it happened. Stephanie would never know what caused it or why it happened at that moment in particular but it did happen and she would never be able to undo it. Something someone had said to her came randomly into her head. She thought about it for a few seconds and then a realisation hit her like an atom bomb going off in her head. It shook her so much that she thought she was going to collapse and she felt overwhelmingly sick.

"Mrs. McMahon? Are you okay?" Lucy asked. "You don't look so good."

"I'm fine," Stephanie mumbled. "Just a bit of a headache. I'm going to sit down for a few minutes. No calls."

"Do you want me to fetch your husband?"

"No," Stephanie managed to say as she walked into her office. She closed the door and leant with her back against it feeling short of breath as the realisation that she had made ran through her head yet again. She sank down to the floor as tears filled her eyes. "No. It can't be true," she whispered in horror.

* * *

_Flashback_

_Stephanie lay curled up on the couch with Nikki's arms and a blanket wrapped around her. She was very scared and confused and she wanted her mom. She wanted to be in her safe place with her mom, she did not want to be alone. She could not focus on anything apart from that. Even her husband had given up on her, he thought she was a bad wife and a bad mother to their children. __Nikki had just sent him out of the room which was good at least. Yes, at least Nikki was there. Nikki's voice was very soothing, maybe this place was safe too? Maybe it was safe to be with Nikki? She__ began to cry again as she tried to force her mind to focus on what Nikki was saying instead of being so scared. It was so hard to do. She had heard herself mumbling answers to Nikki's questions earlier but she had not really known what she was saying. __At least it was nice and warm in this blanket and with Nikki holding her, that was comforting._

_"Don't keep crying Steph, please."_

_That's it, Stephanie told herself, listen to Nikki. She can help. Talk to her. T__rying to stop crying she managed to say, "I'm scared."_

_"Why are you scared sweetheart?"_

_"I'm alone," Stephanie said in absolute despair._

_"You're not alone, you have Paul..."_

_"Paul doesn't want me, I'm a bad wife."_

_"Paul doesn't think that Steph, he loves you."_

_"He doesn't take care of me."_

_"He just doesn't know how sweetheart." Nikki sounded so reassuring. "It's not that he doesn't want to. I'll help him to get better at it."_

_Stephanie felt herself crying again. "I don't need Paul, I need you."_

_"You can't dismiss your husband like that Steph, but I'm here for you."_

_"But bad things still happen and I get scared."_

_Nikki sounded like she was crying too now, "You don't have to be scared, I'm not going to let anything happen to you and I'm not going to let you be alone. You mean the world to me. I'd do anything to protect you from being scared like this. You don't know what I'd do for you... what I've already done."_

* * *

As Stephanie sat on the floor in her office those words repeated themselves in her head, Nikki's voice filled with emotion saying over and over, "What I've already done."

Tears ran down Stephanie's face as she realised how stupid she had been not to see it earlier. It was Nikki who had suggested that she should meet with John Cena.

It was Nikki who had gone to visit John in jail to arrange that meeting and after she had spoken to him she had said that John was afraid that someone would shoot him.

It was Nikki who had gone with her to the meeting with John and sat there silently as he revealed that he was leaving his apartment early the next morning and he probably was not coming back.

It was Nikki who had said nothing for the whole car journey home after she had admitted that she still felt afraid for her kids with John around.

It was Nikki who had protected her from Paul and her dad's questions and accusations after those detectives showed up on the day John was found murdered and questioned her about it.

In fact it was Nikki's idea that she was there with Vince that day to begin with, at that was because she had known the police would show up with questions, because she knew John was going to be killed.

Stephanie was sure of it, it was Nikki who had gotten someone to kill John Cena. She tucked her knees up under her chin as tightly as she could and wrapped her arms around her legs as she began to cry.


	22. Chapter 22

Paul was on a phone call when there was a knock on his door and it opened without him inviting the visitor to enter. He saw his wife's secretary, Lucy walk in. "I'll call you back," he told the person on the other end of the call. "Do you mind?" He demanded of Lucy after ending the call. "I'm busy in here."

"Mr. Levesque you need to come, I think your wife is ill."

This quickly made Paul forget his irritation at the interruption. "What's happened?" As he asked the question he was already making his way out of the office.

"She was fine when the two ladies were here from the charity but when they left she seemed to turn very pale and she looked a little unsteady on her feet," Lucy informed him as they hurriedly covered the short distance to Stephanie's office. "She said she had a headache and she needed five minute but it's been fifteen now so I tried to go in and check on her but I couldn't open the door." By the time she finished her story they were already in Stephanie's outer office. "See for yourself," she gestured at the closed door.

Paul walked over and tried to open the door but it did not move. "Steph?" He yelled. "Have you locked the door? Are you okay?" Getting no response he put his shoulder into the door and pushed it and it moved a little, clearly it was not locked. Something was stopping it from moving.

"Shall I call nine one one?" Lucy asked, close to panicking.

Paul walked over and looked through the window into the office to try to see what was in the way of the door. He could not see Stephanie completely as the angle was not right but he could see her legs with her arms wrapped around them which told him that she was propped against the door and also that something had caused her to shit down again. "No, don't call anyone." He said, heart sinking. "Just go get Nikki."

"Are you sure?"

"Just go Lucy," he ordered, trying not to yell and scare the woman further. "Get Nikki in here then wait outside the office and stop anyone else coming in. Have you got that?"

"Yes sir." Lucy hurried away.

Paul had no clue what could possibly have happened in the office to cause Stephanie to end up in this state again but the first thing he had to do was get to her. After walking back to the door he spoke loudly so that she would be able to hear him on the other side. "Steph, open the door or I'm going to have to push it in. I don't want you to get hurt so please open the door." Already he knew that it was not going to happen so he was not surprised that he got no response. He was going to have to push the door in. Hoping that he did not hurt Stephanie he rammed his shoulder into the door and pushed as hard as he could and soon the door was open wide enough for him to get into the office. Finally inside he crouched down next to Stephanie, relieved that he did not seem to have hurt her in anyway with the door. She sat exactly where the door had pushed her to as it opened and he saw the increasingly familiar sight once again; his wife sat with her knees tucked under her chin and her arms wrapped around her legs and she was crying.

"Oh God Steph, what's happened? Please don't do this again, not again!"

He had expected that she would not talk but she uttered one quiet word and strangely she sounded horrified, "Nikki."

Figuring that she wanted Nikki as usual he decided not to protest that she still wanted Nikki's help instead of his own. "It's okay honey," he assured her. "Nikki is coming too."

A moment later Nikki appeared and took in the scene in front of her. "Oh God, what's happened now?"

"I don't know," Paul sighed in exasperation. "All she's said is that she wants you." He moved aside so that Nikki could get next to Stephanie and crouch down beside her.

"Leave me with her Paul. Stop anyone else coming in." Paul did not want to leave Stephanie but he trusted Nikki to help her as she had before so he left and closed the door. "Steph, tell me what happened?" Nikki asked soothingly, sitting down on the floor beside Stephanie and wrapping her arms around her. "You're okay, I'm here now."

"It was you," Stephanie said distantly.

"What was me sweetheart?" Nikki asked, having no clue at all as to the connection that Stephanie had made in her head.

"You killed John," Stephanie mumbled, then her horrified voice got louder, "It was you, you killed him."

Nikki was stunned to the core to hear that but she reacted quickly, covering Stephanie's mouth delicately but tightly with her hand. "Sshhh Steph, please be quiet. Don't let anyone hear you."

Nikki's mind raced. How the hell did Stephanie know the truth? How did she figure it out? Now what the fuck was she supposed to do? Paul was probably just outside the door and if he heard raised voices he would come back in there and if that happened she was done. She had to calm Stephanie down, but how?" Stephanie moaned loudly into her hand just as she had an idea. She knew that when Stephanie shut down like this that what she wanted most was a mother figure. "Steph can we talk about this?" She said as softly as possible. "If I take my hand away will you stay quiet, please?"

Stephanie nodded slightly and Nikki slowly took her hand away from Stephanie's mouth, ready to grab her again if she did not stay quiet as promised. "I did it for you Steph. You're my step daughter. All I wanted was for you to feel safe. I love you and the girls and I'll never let anything happen to any of you."

Nikki could tell that Stephanie was listening but she mumbled, "You had someone shoot him."

"Yes I did. You told me you would never feel safe as long as John was out there so I did what I had to do. We need to keep this between us, can we do that?" Stephanie did not respond so Nikki continued, "I need this from you Steph, I've been there for you every time you've needed me and now I need you to do this for me. Please can we agree to keep this between us?" Again there was no response. Nikki silently begged for something to get through and make Stephanie see sense. "If anyone else finds out I'm going to jail. That's the only thing that will change. John will still be dead whether I'm here with you or not. The only thing that will happen is that you and Vince will lose me and I'll lose both of you. We don't want that do we?"

Nikki saw that Stephanie had stopped crying and now sat with her eyes closed. Nikki hoped that she was trying to clear her head and accept that what she was saying made sense. She had another idea. "You've already lost your mom once, you don't want that to happen again do you sweetheart?" Stephanie looked at her and she knew that had got through with that.

"No, I love you."

Nikki kissed her forehead, "I love you too, that's why I did this for you. Can we please keep this between us?"

A wave of relief hit Nikki as she heard a quiet, "Yes."

"Good girl," she sighed with immense relief. "You know why I had to do it, right?"

"Yes."

"And you realise it was the only way?"

"Yes."

"And we'll never mention it again?"

"No."

"Not to each other or to anyone else?"

"No."

"Can you stop crying and try to get up?"

"I can do that," Stephanie said, wiping her eyes.

Nikki released Stephanie from her tight embrace, "That's great. I love you Steph."

She was surprised when Stephanie grabbed her into a hug of her own, "I love you mom." Nikki was relieved that she had seemingly solved the immediate problem of Stephanie running her mouth about her being behind John's murder, but having Stephanie calling her mom was now another cause for concern.


	23. Chapter 23

Paul was surprised when the office door opened behind him. It had taken a lot less time than he had imagined, that was assuming that this was going to be good news. He saw Nikki walk out followed by Stephanie. "Steph?" He asked nervously.

"I think we're okay now, right?" Nikki said.

Stephanie hugged Paul, "I'm okay. I'm going home with mom."

Nikki would definitely have preferred Stephanie not to say that as she saw Paul look at her questioningly. "We'll be okay," she said, trying to cover up what was going on as best she could. "She's a little confused is all. Come on Steph let's go home huh?"

Paul had no idea what was going on and Stephanie seemed to be kind of dazed or confused but she seemed happy to leave with Nikki. Why on Earth she had just called Nikki mom he had no idea but Nikki always knew what to do and she was going home with Stephanie. Everything would be okay. "Go home then honey, I'll come as soon as I can. I'll only be a couple of hours. I love you."

Stephanie kissed him, "I love you." Watching the two women leave Paul thought again how lucky he was to be able to trust Nikki to look after his wife. It was sad that she was so much better at it than he was but at least Stephanie would be okay, that was what mattered.

* * *

For the entire drive home Nikki had noticed that Stephanie had sat in silence looking a little dazed. She desperately tried to figure out how Stephanie had figured out for herself the truth about John. Not only that, she appeared to have created another problem for herself in that Stephanie was referring to her as her mother. That was inevitably going to cause Paul to come with awkward questions and that could not be allowed to happen. After they arrived at Stephanie's house Nikki got her settled on the couch in the living room and fetched her a glass of wine from the kitchen. She handed it to over as she sat down next to the older woman. She looked at Stephanie and thought that she still seemed a little dazed. "Drink this for me sweetheart. I know you've had a shock today but I need you to snap out of this for me."

Stephanie drank some of the wine and mumbled, "Sorry mom."

Nikki was beginning to panic now, this had to stop and fast. "Steph, I know you want to think of me as your step-mom and that's great but can we stick to Nikki? People might think it's a little strange if you keep saying mom."

"Okay."

Nikki thought that Stephanie still sounded too distant. She needed to get her to switch on somehow and talk about something clearly. "Talk to me please sweetheart. I don't want to see you like this. Tell me what you're thinking."

Stephanie drank the rest of her wine and managed to speak something close to normally. What she said was certainly not what Nikki wanted to hear though. "I'm thinking about how I'm going to get through the funeral tomorrow."

Nikki sighed, "No Steph. Just no, okay? You know I can't let you go to that funeral. I'll go and I'll tell you all about it but seriously, look at you. If it was anyone else they wouldn't even be at work but I know that work helps you."

"Work does help me, this will help me too. I need the closure."

"John's dead," Nikki's voice had raised in frustration. "What more closure do you need than that?"

"You don't understand what it's like to be sick like this," Stephanie moaned sadly.

The sheer frustration caused Nikki to yell something that she had did not mean to, "Yes I do! I've been through things like this before!"

At least it served a purpose as Stephanie was shocked back to reality again as she stared wide eyed at Nikki for a long moment, "You've been sick like this?"

"Oh God," Nikki had already realised her mistake and tears filled her eyes, this was getting seriously out of control fast.

"Nikki?" Stephanie demanded.

"I don't want to talk about this," Nikki insisted, putting her head in her hands.

Stephanie's voice was back to normal now, "Nikki do you really think that we're not going to talk about this? You've spent so many hours listening to me, now it's time for me to listen to you." She moved over and tried to hold Nikki but Nikki fended her off, "Please, I don't want to talk about it."

Stephanie pleaded, "Come on Nikki, please. You've been sick like this haven't you?"

Nikki realised there was no avoiding saying something. "No I haven't... but Brie has."

Stephanie was dumbfounded. She physically could not say anything for a long moment but eventually she managed, "Brie lost someone? Like I lost my mom?"

Nikki put her head in her hands again, "Losing someone was your trigger Steph, it can be anything. I'm not talking about why Brie became sick, that I insist on. It's not my place to talk about it to anyone, as I wouldn't tell Brie anything that you and I have talked about."

Stephanie tried to put an arm around Nikki again and this time there was no resistance, "I'm sorry. It must have brought back so many awful memories when you've seen me sick."

"Your illness is different to hers Steph. You shut down when things go badly, Brie was the opposite. She would go into terrible, uncontrollable rages and just do the wildest things. I was the only one who could calm her down."

"I can understand that," Stephanie said. "You have a certain... I can't describe it, you just talk and it soothes me. It helps me think clearly again. You're so good at it."

"I had a lot of practice when we were in our teens," Nikki sighed. "You really never suspected any of this?"

Stephanie was confused. "Suspect it? How on Earth would I suspect this?"

Nikki stood up, "I'm bringing that bottle of wine in here." She returned a few moments later with the bottle and a glass already poured for herself. Stephanie held her glass out and Nikki poured some for her.

"How would I suspect this?" Stephanie asked again.

"Come on Steph, think about it. You never thought it was strange how alike you two were when I first took this job? How furiously you went at each other? Brie totally lost it when she thought you were trying to take her place in my life. I guess she thought I wouldn't be there for her any more or something."

"And you were in the middle of it all," Stephanie mumbled, thinking back to all of the confrontations with Brie. "My God, Nikki I'm so sorry."

Nikki laughed but there was no humor in it. "Ironically it was you dragging her across the country and reading her the riot act in your office that seemed to get through to her. It was after that that she apologised to me and changed her attitude and we're back on the right track."

Stephanie was still trying to process what she had been hearing. "I guess now I know why you always seem to know the right thing to say and how you knew how to convince me I was safe with you and also you convinced me to get back on my meds."

Nikki shrugged, "As I said, I've had a lot of practice."

"Wait a minute... why did your parents stop talking to you if you were always the one who was there for Brie in the past?." Stephanie saw a tear make its way down Nikki's cheek.

"Probably for that exact reason. I could take better care of their daughter than they could and they resented me for it so when Brie turned on me so did they."

As Nikki began to cry Stephanie put her glass down and held her, "It's okay Nikki, it's in the past now. Brie is okayy and you're back on good terms and your parents called you."

"I know but you're not making any progress," Nikki sobbed. "No matter what I do you're always back at square one, sitting on the floor with your knees under your chin like that. You're much harder to help than Brie ever was. I couldn't believe it when I saw you in your office earlier. I thought you were taking your meds now?"

"I am, but I can't promise you that it won't happen again. I don't want it to of course. Maybe the meds are taking a few days to start working properly again, I don't know."

Nikki wiped her eyes and Stephanie let go of her. Nikki drank some of her wine, "We've got to get you past this Steph, this whole thing with you shutting down when things go wrong. We can't go there again. From now on no matter what happens it's always going to be me and you. We've always got each other, okay?"

Stephanie nodded, "Me and you."

The two women hugged and both spoke the same words at the same time, "I love you."


	24. Chapter 24

As Paul walked into his house what he heard was the last thing that he could have possibly expected; loud laughter coming from the living room. He walked into the room and saw that Stephanie and Nikki were watching some comedy show or movie. The empty wine bottle on the table probably also had something to do with the laughter.

"Steph? You're okay?" He asked from the doorway.

Both women turned and looked at him and Stephanie slurred happily, "I think I'm drunk but I'm okay."

Nikki giggled as Paul said, "You've gone through a bottle of wine so yeah..."

Stephanie picked up another bottle from the floor that Paul had not been able to see. There was a tiny amount of wine left in the bottom of it which Stephanie drank from the bottle and then banged it down on the table and announced, "Two bottles!" She seemed to think that it was some kind of achievement. Both women burst into laughter again.

"Nikki was this really a good idea?" Paul asked with concern.

Stephanie pointed at her husband's concerned face and laughed again. "Would you prefer this or how she was in the office?" Nikki asked with a smile.

Paul had to admit that the answer to that was obvious but there was still a problem, "Steph, the girls will be home soon."

"Ohhh someone's been naughty," Nikki giggled.

Stephanie laughed. "Watch, I'll get sent to bed next."

"That's an excellent idea," Paul said, finding it hard to remain stern faced. "Nikki I'm going to call Vince and tell him to come and take you home." Both women laughed again and Paul left the room, calling Vince and asking him to come and pick Nikki up. Vince said that he had only just left the office so he would come straight over. Twenty five minutes later as Vince drove away with Nikki giggling away in the passenger seat beside him Paul closed the front door and surprised Stephanie by picking her up in his arms.

"What are you doing?" She laughed hysterically.

"Taking you up to bed before Marissa brings the girls home. I'm glad you're feeling better but you can't be drunk like this around them." Stephanie made no attempt to argue as she let Paul carry her upstairs. "You'll have a hangover tomorrow too I bet," he warned.

"I'll be fine," she insisted, still giggling.

As Paul set her down on the bed he kissed her, "You've had another bad day, try to sleep if you can."

"Where are you going?" She demanded as he turned to leave, grabbing his arm and pulling him back towards her.

"Downstairs to start dinner. The girls..."

"The girls aren't home yet." She yanked him down towards her and kissed him and he realised what she wanted. He also realised that it was not likely to be the best sex ever with Stephanie this drunk but he decided that he would take what he could get. After all, she was right, the girls were not home yet.

* * *

"Good morning." Nikki greeted warmly as she walked through the open door into Paul's office. He studied her for a second. Her hair and make up were done perfectly as usual and her black suit and black blouse were immaculate.

"You need to give Steph that secret," he told her with a slight shake of his head.

"Huh?"

"She's not even in yet, she's hung over big time."

"Oh!" Nikki laughed. "No secret, I just don't get hung over. You answered my question anyway, I wanted to see her before I left. I guess that's not going to happen."

"You're out of the office today?"

"Yeah, I'm going to John's funeral remember?"

Paul shook his head as if confused by how his memory had failed him, "I forgot all about that, what with everything else. At least Steph apparently forgot too."

Nikki seized the chance to use Paul's comment to substantiate a supposed reason for what had taken place the day before. The real reason could for Stephanie's shit down could never be allowed to come out. "Actually she didn't, what do you think yesterday was about?"

"Oh God, don't tell me she actually wants to go with you?"

"No it's just me." Nikki assured him. "She was just having a hard time thinking about it. It will all be over by tonight anyway."

"Thank God," Paul sighed. "I thought things were heading the right way again until yesterday."

"Don't worry, Steph will be fine," Nikki smiled. "Hey, I need to move. I've got to drive down there yet."

"You mean Vince finally bought you a car?" Paul laughed. "I wondered what was taking him so long."

"Yeah I've got the same one as Steph."

"Why doesn't that surprise me?"

"Great minds think alike," Nikki quipped as she left the office with a smile on her face.

* * *

Nikki shivered, thinking that she really should have worn a thicker coat. The dark clouds threatened rain, that would be just perfect. As if this was not uncomfortable enough. She was standing in the graveyard but she was not listening to the service that was being given. Instead she was filled with guilt, which was not something that she had expected at all. She had truly loved John at one time and now she was at his funeral and she was the reason that he was dead. What had happened had been necessary to stop Stephanie from having a total breakdown which would have been inevitable at some point in her opinion.

She had made sure that she was standing as far away from the Cena family as possible as she did not know if they were aware of how close she now was to Stephanie and she did not want any trouble. She noticed that John's father was not there, she guessed that he was too ill or maybe he had already died? She thought that Stephanie coming would definitely have been a terrible idea and she glad to have managed to avoid it. Thankfully Stephanie's fragile mental state was not a problem that needed to be considered right now. "I'm sorry," she said softly as the service ended and John's casket was lowered into the ground.

People began to drift away from the graveside and Nikki had to wait at the back of a group of other mourners to get back onto the pathway. She walked slowly and looked down, unexpectedly fighting against tears which threatened to escape her eyes. Not concentrating on where she was walking she bumped into someone. "Excuse me," she mumbled.

The person did not move aside so Nikki looked up. As she did so she saw that the person was John's brother Dan. "You've got some nerve," he growled at her menacingly.

"Dan let's not do this, okay?" Nikki pleased quietly.

Another of John's brothers came walking over. "Leave her Dan, it's not worth it."

"Leave me alone," Dan ordered his brother. "I've got something to tell her."

"Fine, but don't make a scene, not here."

Dan addressed Nikki again with obvious hatred in his voice, "John told me about you being McMahon's new errand girl. What makes you think you have any business being here?"

"I don't want an argument Dan," Nikki tried again. "Just let me by and I'll get out of here."

"I asked a fucking question. Why are you here?" Dan demanded, voice rising in anger. "And why does McMahon think she can offer us money to pay for the funeral? Are you people for fucking real?"

"Stephanie is very sorry about what happened, she wanted to come today herself but..."

"Oh I wish she had, I really wish she had. You can tell her what I would have told her myself. This is not over. That evil bitch thinks she can have someone kill my brother and carry on like nothing's happened? I don't think so."

Nikki felt herself getting angry quickly at the implied threat against Stephanie but she made another attempt to diffuse the situation, "Stephanie had nothing to do with that, believe me. You should know that she met with John the day before he died and they put their differences aside."

"Died? He was murdered," Dan clarified, his face was turning red with anger. "Stephanie McMahon had my brother murdered, I know she did and she's going to pay for it."

This caused Nikki to lose her temper and with it her self control. "Don't make threats you can't back up! You'll be the next one in a fucking box." As soon as she had said it she regretted it.

She had expected Dan to hit her or something but he did not. "I knew it. I fucking knew it. That bitch is going to pay for this." He stormed away before Nikki could say anything else. She was livid with herself. Why the hell had she said that? What a fucking disaster. Now Dan was close to knowing the truth, or at least thought he was and Stephanie was now in danger because of it too. The two worst things she could imagine were not a reality and all because of her own stupid mouth. She got back to her car and sat there trying to think. She took her phone out of her pocket and stared at it. All she had to do was make one call and Dan would disappear, just like John had. She sat there for a long moment with the relevant number on the screen and her thumb poised over the call button but eventually she said aloud, "No. I can't get away with it twice. So what am I supposed to do? Definitely not tell Stephanie that's for sure. I'll have to keep it to myself and hope that that prick is all mouth and that he doesn't try anything stupid."


	25. Chapter 25

Backstage at Smackdown Nikki and Vince walked into Stephanie's office. Stephanie had sent Nikki to find him and she was ready for their arrival. "You needed to see me boss?" Vince joked as he entered.

"Yes I did," Stephanie said, deadpanning the sarcasm. "I've been thinking about the ending of the match at Survivor Series..."

"You've changed your mind about doing it?" Vince cut in.

"No I haven't. I've had an idea about how it could be improved. Read this." She handed over a new write up of the ending of the match.

Vince read the new proposed finish to the match and his eyes widened, "You really want to do that? I mean... it will be great but... I don't want you to get hurt."

"Relax dad," Stephanie said, as if she was tolerating his concern rather than appreciating it. "We can practice it and we'll get everything set just right. You know I won't get hurt."

"Can I read it?" Nikki asked. Vince handed the sheet of paper over and Nikki read it then grinned, "Steph that will be awesome!"

"More importantly you'll never see anything like it on TNA," Stephanie agreed with a smile of her own.

* * *

After the first match and commercial break Stephanie's music played and the crowd cheered. As Stephanie walked out and headed down the entrance ramp Michael Cole said, "I've been waiting for this John. I spoke to Stephanie earlier today and to say she was angry about what her dad did to her Monday night would be an understatement."

"Stephanie is angry?" JBL asked, as if the idea was ludicrous. "What about Mr. McMahon? Let's not forget that Stephanie put his girlfriend, the beautiful Nikki Bella, in hospital last week on Smackdown."

Stephanie had angrily stormed to the ring and it had not taken her long. She snatched a microphone from the ring announcer and started out angrily, "After Monday night I'm not playing games any more. I want the match at Survivor Series changed. No disqualifications just isn't going to cut it. I want a last man standing match!"

The crowd cheered and some began to chant "Yes!" as Stephanie continued, "How about it dad? Last man standing match. if you've got the balls?"

"Stephanie's lost it," Cole announced with genuine concern as everyone waited for a response of some kind from Vince. "Someone's going to get seriously hurt in a last man standing match. The only way to win is to beat your opponent to the point where they can't answer a ten count."

"I think Vince should accept," JBL chirped gleefully. "He can beat Stephanie's ass even more! She's way out of her depth in that kind of match."

Angry at not getting a response Stephanie yelled, "Come on 'dad' I know your wrinkled old ass is here. Get out here and answer me before I come back there and find you." The crowd cheered that and a moment later she yelled again, "Five seconds and I'm coming back there!"

The crowd counted out the five seconds and when the time expired there had still been no response. Stephanie jumped out of the ring and pulled out her familiar sledgehammer from underneath it. "It's going to happen right now!" Cole yelled as Stephanie headed up the ramp with the sledgehammer in hand. "We're not waiting for Survivor Series! Stephanie's going to go beat her dad's ass!"

Stephanie stormed through the curtain and the shot cut back to the commentary table. "Don't put us on the screen! Get a camera back there!" JBL demanded.

After a moment a shot from backstage was shown which was in fact pre recorded. Stephanie stormed along an empty hallway shouting, "Come on dad where are you huh? I've got something here I want to introduce you to!" She crashed into Vince's office but it was empty. She stormed back out and yelled, "Where are you dad? Come on don't be scared!" She walked further along the hallway and opened another door, "You're not in the doctors office, I thought you might be getting checked out for something you caught from that slut you keep dragging around the place." She walked past another door and then turned back and opened it, "Hell, you might be in here... the women's bathroom. We all know that you piss sitting down!"

The crowd cheered at the insult but as Stephanie left the room and continued along the hallway she was attacked from behind by Vince and Kane. The crowd booed as they stomped on her on the floor for a few moments. Kane backed off and Vince bent over Stephanie as she lay in pain on the floor. "You want a last man standing match at Survivor Series?" He sneered at his fallen daughter. "You've got it."

"This is embarrassing," Cole moaned in disgust. "It takes two men to attack Stephanie from behind? Mr. McMahon should be ashamed of himself, he's going to get what's coming to him sooner or later "


	26. Chapter 26

As Raw went on the air the following Monday night Michael Cole greeted the audience, "Hello everyone and welcome to Monday Night Raw. We're just six days away from Survivor Series where we have two main events. We have Randy Orton, Daniel Bryan and Brock Lesnar in a triple threat match for the WWE title and we have Mr. McMahon facing his own daughter Stephanie in a last man standing match and King, someone's going for good."

"That's right Michael, and look what has been announced for tonight." A graphic was shown on the screen showing the match that Lawler was talking about. "Just signed by Stephanie McMahon herself we have Mr. McMahon going one on one with Triple H."

"Tell me how this is fair?" JBL moaned. "Six days before the biggest match of his career Mr. McMahon has to wrestle Triple H? This is ridiculous."

Cole laughed, "Vince is going to get the ass kicking that he's needed for some time!"

* * *

Paul Heyman and Brock Lesnar had been in the ring for what seemed like a very long time to everyone who was watching as Heyman ran his mouth about what Lesnar was going to do at Survivor Series and who he was going to do it to before moving on to complaining about the rules of the triple threat match once more. "Unfortunately there is a wildcard situation in this match, a situation that my client Brock Lesnar is not in control of. In the unlikely event that my client Brock Lesnar doesn't destroy both Daniel Bryan and Randy Orton in the first two minutes of the match we could possibly, in the most extraordinary circumstances, have a situation where my client Brock Lesnar loses his title without even being involved in the decision." He paused as Lesnar appeared to complain to him about how unfair that would be.

"Who do we have to thank for this exceptional piece of brilliance?" Heyman continued sarcastically. "Who was it who took a perfectly fair one on one contest between my client Brock Lesnar and Randy Orton and added Daniel Bryan..." He was interrupted by a huge cheer. "Who isn't even deserving of a title opportunity..." The crowd booed loudly. "And made it a triple threat match. Who do we have to thank? Your favourite CEO and mine, Stephanie McMahon." The crowd cheered again.

"I came out here last week and delivered a friendly message to Stephanie that if my client Brock Lesnar loses his title at Survivor Series without being involved in the decision he will hold her personally responsible, and what did I get? I got threatened with a sledgehammer!" The crowd cheered and some began to chant "Steph!"

"Being threatened with a sledgehammer isn't something that I appreciate, therefore Stephanie, this is no longer a friendly message, this is a specific warning. If my client loses his title at Survivor Series without being involved in the decision you will not answer to me, you will answer directly to Brock Lesnar!"

The crowd booed but then the reaction changed to cheers as Triple H's music played. He walked down to the ring and stood face to face with Lesnar. Although he was staring into Lesnar's eyes he spoke angrily to Heyman, "I have a specific warning for your client Brock Lesnar and for anyone else in the locker room. Anyone who even thinks about going near my wife either tonight or at Survivor Series or in fact at any other time will answer directly to me." The crowd cheered as the two men stood with their noses nearly touching. After a few moments Heyman pulled Lesnar away and they backed out of the ring to another chorus of boos.

"No one's going to lay a finger on Stephanie if Triple H has anything to say about it," Cole announced with satisfaction.

"Apart from Mr. McMahon," JBL pointed out with satisfaction his own. "Triple H can't protect her from what he's going to do to her Sunday in the last man standing match."

* * *

Stephanie accompanied her husband to the ring for his match despite protests from JBL that it was not fair. Vince came out without any backup although no one believed that would last for long. After a few minutes of Triple H beating Vince all around the ring and hitting some of his signature moves Kane ran down the entrance ramp and rolled into the ring and hit Triple H from behind, knocking him down. The referee immediately threw the match out and called a disqualification on Vince. Kane and Vince began to stomp on Triple H repeatedly as the crowd booed.

Stephanie was about to climb into the ring when Randy Orton came running down. The crowd cheered as he started into Kane with right hands. This left Vince on his own with Triple H and predictably Triple H soon got the upper hand once more as he pummelled Vince in the corner of the ring.

Kane caught Orton with a huge right hand and knocked him down. He them climbed up to the top rope in the opposite corner to where Triple H was destroying Vince. Kane waited for Orton to get up and attempted to deliver a clothesline from the top but Orton turned it into an RKO which drew a huge reaction from the crowd.

The cheering was quickly replaced by boos as Brock Lesnar ran into the ring. As Orton got up Lesnar picked him up on his shoulders and hit him with an F5. As Lesnar got to his feet after delivering the move Triple H came out of the corner and swung at him but Lesnar ducked it and also got Triple H with an F5.

As this was happening Daniel Bryan ran into the ring and as Lesnar got up once more Bryan hit him with his signature running knee. There were bodies everywhere as the crowd chanted "Yes!" as loudly as possible. Daniel rolled out of the ring and pulled a sledgehammer out from under it. He rolled back in the ring with it and then gestured for Stephanie to get in the ring with him. The crowd roared as Stephanie climbed in the ring and Daniel gestured for her to hit Vince with the hammer, handing it over to her and leaving the ring. Stephanie stood in position behind Vince as he tried to get up by using the ropes in the corner. The noise from the crowd rose in anticipation as Vince reached his feet and staggered out of the corner.

As he turned around Stephanie swung the hammer and as it connected with Vince's stomach the crowd all yelled, "Boom!" and then cheered loudly as Vince crumpled to the floor and rolled around on the canvas screaming in pain as Stephanie stood over him with a look of contempt on her face. "You've got to give the advantage to Stephanie now at Survivor Series!" Cole enthused. !Mr. McMahon has just six days to recover from this! If Stephanie connects with that hammer again on Sunday Mr. McMahon is gone!"

* * *

Vince took the night off on Thursday partly as his character was injured and partly to make sure that he was fresh for Sunday night. The rivalry was covered by a series of recap segments of the rivalry between Vince and Stephanie. Next up was Survivor Series.


	27. Chapter 27

Backstage at Survivor Series everyone who was to be involved in the match between Vince and Stephanie had clarified that they knew what to do and when to do it. "You're comfortable with the ending?" Vince asked Stephanie for what seemed like the fiftieth time that night as they waited in the Gorilla position, moments before their match.

Stephanie nodded, "I keep saying it, I've done as much practice as possible and everything is ready."

They hugged and Vince said, "Good luck, I love you."

"I love you too dad, let's do this." Hugs were then also shared with Paul and Nikki and it was time to go.

Stephanie was introduced first and she walked down the entrance ramp. Many pay per view stages did not have a ramp on the entrance way but this one did for a reason. As Stephanie got close to the ring Vince ran down and attacked her from behind. The crowd booed him furiously but the referee ordered the bell to be sounded and the match was under way. Vince kept the upper hand for the first five minutes but did not come close to keeping Stephanie down for the required ten count.

Stephanie was able to turn the tables and get the advantage by scoring with a kick into Vince's injured stomach. She then spent a few minutes with the advantage herself, also without getting close to the victory.

Things began to get serious as they were fighting outside of the ring. Stephanie tried to throw Vince into the ring steps but he reversed and sent her crashing shoulder first into the steps. Vince did not bother waiting for the referee to count. He started removing the monitors from the commentators table.

"Wait a minute," King said nervously. "Don't tell me he's going to do what I think he's going to do?"

"Yes he is!" JBL exclaimed in delight. "He's going to put Stephanie through the table and this is going to be over!" Vince picked Stephanie up and dumped her onto the table. He had told Stephanie that if she was going to do the finish she had proposed then he wanted to do a big spot too and this was the moment for it. He climbed into the ring and onto the top rope. The noise from the crowd rose as Vince lined up the jump he was about to make. "Don't do it Vince!" Cole screamed. "You'll break her in half!"

Vince leapt from the top rope but simultaneously Stephanie rolled off the table and Vince crashed through it alone and lay in a heap on the floor as the crowd chanted, "Holy Shit!"

The referee began his ten count as Stephanie used the ring apron to help her to get to her feet. "Stephanie is up!" Cole announced. "Mr. McMahon is down! This is going to be it!"

As the referee reached the count of seven Vince still had not moved. At eight he began to stir. At nine he reached his knees. As the referee was about to count ten Vince regained his feet for a second but immediately collapsed again. Even so this meant that the count had to start again. When it became obvious that Vince would make the second count at either seven or eight Stephanie attacked him again, delivering a series of kicks to his injured stomach. Yet again this failed to keep him down.

They had known in preparation that Vince would not be able to go for a long match, especially with his dive through the table so it was now time to start the ending segment of the match.

As Vince groggily got to his feet once more Stephanie grabbed him and managed to roll him into the ring. She walked around the side of the ring that the entrance was on and looked under the ring apron, emerging with the now obligatory sledgehammer and the crowd cheered. She got into the ring with the hammer and Cole yelled, "This is it! Stephanie's going to..."

The crowd erupted into boos as Nikki Bella came storming down the ramp, angrily throwing off her suit jacket as she did so. "Wait!" Cole continued yelling. "Here's Nikki Bella! She has no business out here!"

"Yes!" JBL yelped joyously. "Get her Nikki!"

Stephanie stood in the ring, prepared to swing the hammer at Vince and she had no idea that Nikki had entered the ring behind her. As Vince regained his feet she swung the hammer back but as she did so Nikki grabbed it and snatched it from her.

Stephanie turned in surprise and quickly ducked Nikki's wild swing with the hammer. Stephanie kicked Nikki in the stomach, causing her to drop the hammer. Stephanie began to set Nikki up for a pedigree but Vince attached her from behind and knocked her down. The crowd booed as Vince and Nikki both stomped on Stephanie but then there was a cheer and Cole yelled, "There's Brie Bella! She's coming for another piece of her sister!"

Brie slid into the ring and threw herself at Nikki and they both crashed through the ropes to the floor and then they both continued frantically trying to get the upper hand on each other. As that happened Kane also ran into the ring. "Come on!" Cole pleaded. "Get him out of here!"

Vince hauled Stephanie to her feet and shoved her towards Kane who grabbed her by the throat and the crowd booed furiously. Kane lifted her high into the air and gave her a choke slam. "Damn it!" Cole growled, sounding as defeated as Stephanie looked. "This isn't fair!"

The crowd cheered yet again as Triple H ran down with a steel chair. "This is out of control!" JBL shouted. "What's happening?"

Triple H rolled into the ring and hit Kane in the head with chair which knocked down. Vince swung a right hand at Triple H but missed and instead got a kick in the stomach and a chair to the head. Kane was already up from his chair shot and he came at Triple H and clotheslined him over the top rope. The two men soon fought out into the crowd, leaving Stephanie and Vince down on the canvas, both flat on their backs with the sledgehammer lying in between them.

"What happens if it's a draw?" JBL wanted to know because the referee's count had reached six with no sign of life from either Vince or Stephanie.

At eight both competitors were trying to get up. At nine Vince was on his feet and Stephanie was trying to use the ropes to pull herself up. The referee nearly got ten but he called Stephanie as up as she clung to the ropes. JBL yelled, "She's not up she's in the ropes! I don't like that call!"

"Shut up John," Cole countered, the tension mounting even at the commentary table. "She's on her feet, it doesn't matter if she's using the ropes."

Before Stephanie could react Vince had staggered forwards and picked up the sledgehammer. Knowing that she was in trouble because she did not have a weapon of her own Stephanie retreated from him and backed out of the ring on the entrance side. "Now what Stephanie?" JBL asked. "You're lost without a weapon aren't you?"

Vince followed his daughter out of the ring, stalking her with the hammer as she backed away. As she got halfway up the ramp the crowd booed as they saw someone appear on the stage behind Stephanie. "Oh my God," Cole said, his voice hushed in dread. "There's Brock Lesnar. He lost his title earlier tonight."

"Yes and he wasn't even pinned!" JBL reminded, still angry about it himself. "Daniel Bryan pinned Randy Orton! Lesnar said Stephanie would pay if that happened! Get her!"

Stephanie's attention was fully focused on Vince and his hammer and she backed right into Lesnar. She whipped around in surprise and former champion grabbed her, hoisting her onto his shoulders.

"Don't do that!" Lawler panicked. "Not on the stage! No!" Lesnar got the F5 and not only was it on the stage, Stephanie went clean through the top of the entrance ramp, disappearing from sight and apparently falling to the floor below. There were a few loud popping noises and some sparks flew up out of the hole that Stephanie had gone through as all of the lights at that end of the arena went out followed by the big screen. The crowd was hushed in horror.

"Oh my God!" Cole screamed. "Christ almighty! Stephanie went through the stage and we've lost the lights in the arena. Please don't tell me she just got electrocuted?" Lesnar grinned at the damage he had caused and walked away to the back.

"Get your ass up there and count!" Vince ranted at the referee.

The referee made his count and there was no doubt about the outcome. As he counted nine Lawler yelled, "No! Not this way!"

The count reached ten and the crowd groaned in shock as JBL celebrated, "Yes! Yes! Stephanie is gone! Mr. McMahon is back in charge!"

"Forget that! Get someone down there and make sure she's okay," Cole pleaded.

Vince stood over the hole in stage and celebrated and he was joined by Nikki who had apparently gotten the best of Brie. The two stood with their hands raised in triumph and wore huge smiles on their faces. "We need help out here!" Cole continued to shout. "Someone check if Stephanie's okay!"

As the show went off the air JBL said, "It doesn't matter if she's okay, Stephanie McMahon is gone."


	28. Chapter 28

Raw opened with a video package to recap what had happened at Survivor Series, covering the WWE title match and the main event. When it was over Michael Cole welcomed the viewers to the show and then announced, "WWE will never be the same again after last night. We have a new WWE champion and sadly we're never going to see Stephanie McMahon again."

"I haven't even heard an update on Stephanie's condition after how that match ended," Lawler said, still sounding shocked at how the match had ended.

As he finished the sentence Stephanie's music played and the crowd roared as it was understandably the last thing that they had expected to kick off the show. They cheered again as she appeared on the stage and began to walk to the ring. "What the hell is this?" JBL demanded. "She's not supposed to be here! She lost the match!"

"I don't know what this is but I'm glad to see that Stephanie seems to be okay," Cole said with relief.

Stephanie got into the ring and took a microphone as the crowd erupted into a "Steph!" chant. "Thank you. Thank you everyone. I'm only out here for two reasons; firstly to say goodbye."

The crowd booed as JBL moaned, "Okay, goodbye. Now get out of here."

"I wanted to thank you all for your support and to tell you all that it has meant a lot to me, but I agreed to the stipulation that if I lost at Survivor Series I had to go and that is unfortunately what happened." A few people began to chant "Thank you Steph," as she continued, "I'm not going to stand out here and cry about how it was actually Brock Lesnar who beat me and not my dad, frankly I have more dignity than that. Although that brings me to the second reason I'm out here. I'm not the only one leaving due to what happened last night. Before I leave I have the pleasure of announcing that as my final act, Brock Lesnar... You're fired!" This was actually to cover for another lengthy absence for Lesnar but the crowd loved it, cheering loudly and then chanting, "Yes!"

With her announcement complete Stephanie walked over to hand the microphone back through the ropes to the ring announcer but just before she got there she stopped and said, "Oh, there was one other thing," as if she had just remembered it. As a smile spread across her face the noise from the crowd rose slightly as they wondered what was going on.

"I agreed that if I lost at Survivor Series I wouldn't show up to Raw or Smackdown again but... I don't remember agreeing that my dad would take my place in charge." The noise rose a little more as the crowd began to suspect where this might be going.

"With that in mind I've got a little surprise for my dad and his rented girlfriend when they show up here tonight... because I've appointed a new General Manager of both Raw and Smackdown."

The crowd roared at that news but still Stephanie continued, "This new General Manager has been given all of my rights and privileges and will be able to run the shows as he sees fit." Stephanie paused and smiled yet again, "I can tell you're all asking 'well who is it?' and I'm going to tell you. I found someone who my dad is going to hate working with even more than he hated working with me. I found someone who will make the very thought of coming to work seem like hell for my dad and his precious Nikki."

The crowd began to chant, "Austin!" and Stephanie laughed, "It's not Steve Austin. It's someone I think my dad will hate working with even more than Steve Austin. Steve Austin may have been good at beating my dad's ass but he'd be the first to admit that he's no businessman. This new general manager knows the business and I know for a fact that my dad cannot stand to even be in the same building with him." The crowd were at a loss which only increased their anticipation.

"Without further delay allow me to introduce you to your new General Manager." She pointed up the entrance ramp. For a few long seconds nothing happened and the anticipation was incredible. Then the music played, "Here comes the money..."

The crowd exploded as they realised that it was Shane McMahon. As Shane walked out onto the stage Michael Cole yelled, "Oh, I don't believe it! It's Shane McMahon! Vince is going to have a heart attack when he finds out! We haven't seen Shane McMahon for years!'

Shane jogged down the ramp and climbed in the ring, shuffling around it in his familiar style as Stephanie looked on, laughing. As his music stopped Shane shared a hug with his sister. She handed him her microphone and as she left the ring he said, "Give it up for my sister."

Everyone applauded as Stephanie walked up the ramp with tears in her eyes and disappeared through the curtain without looking back.

The crowd loved it as Shane cut a promo on Vince and Nikki and promised to make their lives hell.

* * *

Whilst that was happening Stephanie had walked back to her office. She picked up her phone and saw a text message. She read it and thought, "Seriously? Three messages in a week in the office and now you start with text messages? I'll call you when I'm ready, when the time is right for me! I get the feeling that it will be soon. I hope that this is what I think it is, please let it be true." She smiled with satisfaction.


	29. Chapter 29

**Five weeks later**

"More than a month," Paul thought, "Nothing crazy has happened for more than a month. I thought this may never be the case again and yet life is shit." Over the last few weeks he had realised that he was not happy. As Stephanie's health had improved and it had not been necessary to devote so much of his time and attention to her a revelation had slowly dawned on him; he was not happy with his own life. He had been so focussed on helping Stephanie with her problems and trying to save their marriage over the last few months that he had let his own life suffer. In fact his own life was a wreck. The more he had thought about it the worse it became. Firstly there was work. He had been pushed aside by Vince rather than upwards when Stephanie got promoted. Not only that he actually have to report to her directly as she was the CEO of the company and that made her his superior. His wife was his boss, how the hell had that even happened?" He thought back to just a week before, "She actually had me in her office and she tore me a new asshole about my staff under performing. My wife reading me the riot act at work? What the hell is that about? I'm barely involved in storylines any more and I even have no say in what happens in the creative process. How did I let all of that happen? She even passed over me on the angle after Survivor Series when her character handed over control to someone else. She could easily have given that angle to me but what did she do? She persuaded Shane to do it! God only knows how she managed that, everyone knows that Shane doesn't want to be in the wrestling business any more. I went to her and told her that I'm not happy about not being involved and I want to be written back into a major storyline and what did she say? She shrugged and said, "Your character has nothing going on right now, what do you want me to do?"

Just thinking about it all was making his blood boil. That was it? That was the answer he got? After all of the support he had given to Stephanie in the last few months he got that? 'What do you want me to do?' How about telling one of her staff to write something good for him? Why had he not actually said that at the time instead of letting her off the hook by dropping the subject? He was too afraid to upset her, that was why. Well it was time to forget that. "I'm going to tell her straight and she's going to do what I ask," he thought decisively.

Work was not the only problem though. There were also problems in his life outside of work. He was coming to realise that Stephanie may well be healthy now that she was back on her meds but she was not the same woman he married. She was selfish and arrogant and he did like it at all. It was only in little ways that he had noticed it to begin with but they had started to mount up. He did not like the way she spoke to him and the way she blatantly expected everything to revolve around her. Maybe she had gotten used to it whilst she was sick? Even over Christmas he had not been happy. Sure the kids had loved it, both he and Stephanie had made sure of that. He had to be honest and admit that it was obvious that she only cared about three things; herself, the kids and the damn company. He could not be sure what order those things would be in on her list of priorities but he damn sure did not feature on it.

On top of all of that Stephanie had been acting strange again for the last couple of days. He had heard her being sick once but she had insisted that she did not feel ill so what the hell was wrong with her this time? He was still making sure that she took her meds but even so he sensed that something was going on again and he was not sure that he could go through it all again if she was going to have a relapse, not for a fourth time.

He had made breakfast for everyone, even though that was usually Stephanie's job and even worse she had not even been down yet to eat hers. What was she doing upstairs? Eventually he trudged up there to find out, trying to keep his temper in check. He looked in their bedroom first and and saw that she was not in there. He figured that she must be in the bathroom. Walking up to the bathroom door he said, "Are you coming down for breakfast?"

"Get Nikki," he heard from inside. Stephanie sounded frightened but the words irritated him. This Nikki thing was getting seriously old, fast.

"What's wrong now?" He demanded.

"Just get Nikki."

He rubbed his forehead in frustration. "You're not going to come out until I get Nikki are you?"

"No. Get Nikki."

"Fine," he sighed and trudged back downstairs to find his phone. When he found it in the living room he called Nikki and she answered, "Hi Paul, it's early... everything okay?"

"No," he sighed. "Steph's acting strange again. She's locked herself in the bathroom and she's not coming out until you get here apparently, so could you come over?"

"What's wrong with her?" Nikki sounded worried.

"How would I know?" Paul said with an almost sarcastic laugh.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Sorry Nikki, just come would you?"

"Of course. I'll come over right now."

* * *

Paul opened the front door twenty minutes later and Nikki hurried in. He saw that she had already dressed for work, something he should have done by now himself, but he had been left to do everything from making the breakfast to getting the kids ready for school whilst his wife sat upstairs in the bathroom acting strange. It was really testing his patience. "Hey Paul, is she still in the bathroom?" Nikki asked.

"Yeah, thanks for coming over so quickly. Go up."

Nikki did just that and Paul heard her voice from outside the bathroom door, "Steph it's me. Can you open the door?"

Almost immediately he heard the door open and again he felt his irritation rising even further. One thing was for sure, if they took too long on there he was taking the girls to school and then heading to the office, Stephanie could make her own way there. For fifteen minutes sat in the living room fending off questions from the girls about what was wrong with mom, wondering how many more times this was actually going to happen. It was not fair on the girls to keep having this going on around them.

Eventually Nikki appeared in the living room and the girls piled onto her, surprised and happy to see Grandma Nikki. It cheered Paul a little to see the girls so happy. Even if he and Stephanie were not seeing eye to eye there was no way that he would it let it upset the girls and he knew that Stephanie felt the same. He figured that things with Stephanie would improve soon and told himself to stop being selfish, his wife was upset about something for God's sake. As Nikki managed to free herself from the girls she whispered to Paul, "Go talk to Steph in the kitchen."

Without questioning her he walked out of the living room and into the kitchen. Stephanie turned to him as he walked in and he saw that she looked shocked. Putting his previous bad mood aside as much as he could he asked, "Steph, tell me what's wrong?"

She held something out towards him and before he could process what it was he heard her announce quietly, "I'm pregnant."


	30. Chapter 30

It took a second for the announcement to sink in but when it did Paul forgot everything that he had been feeling angry about and a huge smile spread across his face as he hugged Stephanie. "Oh my God, that's amazing."

"We're going to have another baby," Stephanie said in near disbelief as she returned the hug.

"I love you Steph and I'm sorry about how I've been acting this last week," Paul said, feeling like a dick.

"Good. At least we can forget about it now."

He felt a moment of anger again at that. "Good?" He thought. "We can forget about it? Yeah let's just forget about any problems that I might have. Wouldn't want to trouble ourselves with that would we?" It also did not escape him that she had not repeated that she loved him. "I can't believe it, another daughter or even a son," he exclaimed, trying once more to set his negative feelings aside.

"I half expected you to be angry."

He released the hug and studied her in confusion, "Why would I be angry?"

"You've been acting strange for ages," she shrugged. "I didn't know what to expect, I never do any more."

"How have I been acting strange?" Paul demanded, thinking how backwards that sounded.

She raised an eyebrow which was a new habit of her that really irritated him, "Really? You've spent at least a week sulking and you ask how you've been acting strange?"

Before Paul could reply Nikki walked into the kitchen which was probably a good thing as Paul sensed that he was about to lose his cool with Stephanie, and with the kids in the next room that was not what he wanted to do. He was surprised as Nikki hugged him. "Congratulations Paul, this is such amazing news."

"Thanks Nikki."

He watched as Nikki hugged Stephanie next, "I'm so pleased for you Steph. I love you."

He watched his wife hug Nikki in return and heard her say, "I love you too." He felt his anger rising yet again as he thought, "Yeah you repeat it to her don't you?"

"You don't seem as happy as I thought you would," Nikki commented gently. Paul thought, "No shit." He remembered each of the three previous times that she had told him that she was pregnant quite clearly and they had been nothing like this.

Stephanie pulled away from Nikki and said, "I'm just trying to take it in Nikki, this wasn't planned."

Paul studied his wife carefully and looked into her eyes and he felt himself begin to boil at what he detected. Trying to remain calm he said, "Nikki thanks for coming over but we need to get the girls to school before they're late."

"Of course, I'll see you at work. I'm so pleased for you both." She shouted a goodbye to the girls and left.

* * *

Paul managed to keep his cool until they had dropped the girls off at school. As he drove away, heading for the office he could contain himself no more. "You don't want this baby do you?" He demanded.

"What did you just say to me?" Stephanie demanded, turning to look at him.

"You heard. You don't want this baby. You've reacted totally differently this time to the other three. You don't seem happy at all."

"You might remember that we planned for the girls," Stephanie reminded him heatedly. "We didn't plan for this."

"Tell me that you want this baby!" Paul demanded angrily. He glanced over at her and saw her narrow her eyes at him.

"Of course I want this baby," she growled. "How could I not want it? How dare you ask me that? My kids are the most precious things in the world to me."

"_Our_ kids Stephanie," Paul growled right back. "_Our_ kids, not yours."

"Paul you're really pissing me off, it was a turn of phrase. Will you stop acting like this? You complain that I don't want this baby and yet you're acting like this just after we've found out about it. Instead of taking a stupid attitude with me why don't you ask yourself why _you're_ not happy about it? Ask yourself why you're being an asshole while you're at it."

Paul realised that she was right, he should be happy right now. In fact he was happy about the baby, it was the rest of his life that was the problem, Stephanie was the problem and the bitch had just called him an asshole. Even so he tried his hardest to speak more calmly, "I'm happy about the baby, it's fantastic news. It's the rest of my life I'm not happy about."

He noticed Stephanie turn away from him and look out of the window on her side of the car. He also heard her mutter "Unbelievable," under her breath. Not wanting to have a raging argument this early in the day Paul said nothing, driving on in silence.

* * *

Later that day Stephanie sat in her office wondering what the hell was wrong with her husband. She did not understand why he had reacted the way he had to the news about the baby. Why could he not just be happy about it? Sure it was unplanned but it was amazing to think about having another child. He had actually accused her of not wanting to have the baby. She shook her head as she thought about it and wondered where the hell he got off saying something like that. She also could not understand why he had stopped paying attention to her the way he used to. She had stayed on her meds and things had gotten back to normal and then he had started to distance himself and had adopted this new sulky attitude. Again she wondered what was wrong with him. He had a wife who loved him, he had three perfect daughters and another baby on the way and he had one of the best jobs anyone could possibly want. They did not want for anything in life and he still could not be happy?" She began to get angry as she thought about it. "What's wrong with the selfish bastard?" She demanded of her otherwise empty office.

Then her mind took her back to the previous Friday night, when she had tried to tell him her other news. He had been in such a sulky mood that she had not bothered with it in the end. She had made dinner and tried to make it a nice evening as she had been looking forward to telling him about it but no, he had just sulked like a kid. Hell, he was worse than the girls just lately. "Oh well," she thought. "I'll have to try again some time soon. Surely he'll be pleased for me when he finds out? This is massive for me, he knows what this company means to me."

* * *

Paul printed off the attachment on the email that he had just received. He waited for the pages to collect in the top of his printer, then he picked them up and read through all of them. He read through them again to make sure and it was true; the entire script for tonight's Raw and he was not mentioned once. No storyline, no segment in the ring, not even anything to record backstage. He closed his eyes and closed the hand holding the script into a fist, crumpling up the sheets of paper.

As he sat with his eyes closed his anger got worse and worse as his mind ran free. He thought about everything that he had done for Stephanie over the last few months, "I was there for her when her mom died, I did my best to help her. She totally lost the plot and ended up fucking John Cena and I forgave her. She arranged secret meetings with Dwayne Johnson behind my back, hell, she probably would have fucked him too but I forgave her. She pushed John Cena over the edge and nearly got herself hurt in the process and I was there for her. She caused John Cena's dad not to get treatment for his cancer which means that she effectively killed the poor old bastard but all she did was feel sorry for herself about it and still I was still there for her, taking her side. I took her to and from her therapy sessions every day for weeks and pretty much handled the kids single handed. Then Nikki had came along and suddenly I wasn't good enough any more? She wanted Nikki all of the time suddenly instead. My help wasn't required as soon as she had someone that she regarded as being better at helping her than I was. Then John was killed by someone. Do I really believe that Stephanie had nothing to do with it? I want to believe it and the police have found nothing to link her to it but I still can't help doubting her. What kind of crazy shit is that? Even through all of that I was there every step of the way as she had cried so many times about the detectives hounding her with questions. Then when it began to dawn on me that I'm not happy in this marriage and I tried to talk to her about it she lost the plot again and somehow I was made out to be the one in the wrong. She acted like a total bitch to me and Murphy ended up going missing in that forest because of it, because of her. Yet again I was there for her and supported her as she tried to recover. Now she's pregnant and I'm not convinced that she even wants the baby. I question her about it she tries to make him out to be the bad guy again and now this, the final straw. I asked her for one thing, that was all. I asked her to write me back onto the show, back into the business that I love, that she knows I love, and she's totally ignored me."

He got up and stormed towards the door. "Fuck this shit," he growled. "Fuck her, I'm done."


	31. Chapter 31

Storming towards his wife's office Paul knew that this was more than likely going to be a vicious argument but the truth was that he did not care any more. If Stephanie did not want to listen to him when he had a problem with something then what was the point anyway? He walked into her office without knocking on the door and he saw that her secretary was sitting in front of the desk, taking notes on whatever Stephanie was telling her. "Stephanie we need to talk. Lucy can you give us a minute?"

Stephanie made a dismissive hand gesture, "It will have to wait I'm in the middle of something. We can talk later on the flight, and knock my door before you..."

Paul did not want the argument to start with Lucy still in the room but he could not fully hide the anger in his voice as he cut her off, "No it won't have to wait. Lucy leave us please."

Lucy looked to Stephanie for confirmation and got a slight nod. She hurried out of the room. As soon the door closed Stephanie started into Paul angrily, "Where do you get off storming in here and ordering my staff around?"

"Probably the same place that you get off writing this crap," he threw the script onto her desk.

Stephanie made no attempt to pick it up but she saw what it was. "I don't know how familiar you are with how these things work but I don't actually write that. In fact I haven't even had time to read it yet."

Her sarcasm made Paul even angrier. "Well I've read it and I'm not on the show at all, again! Despite what I asked you..."

Stephanie rolled her eyes, "We're on this again? Really?"

The way she spoke and the way she rolled her eyes sent him over the edge. "Don't roll your fucking eyes at me! I asked you to put me back on the show and I told you what it meant to me as if you didn't already know and you've taken me off it completely!"

"Don't swear at me Paul," she growled at him. "I already told you that I don't write this and I haven't even read it yet."

"Don't try and get cute with me!" Paul raged. "It's your team that fucking write it! You could have had something written for me but you haven't! I told you I wanted to be back in a storyline and you totally ignored me."

"Didn't I just say don't swear at me?" Stephanie hissed. "You came to me last week with this and you think I'm going to have something written for you this quickly, if I choose to at all? Anyway who the hell do you think you are coming in here and trying to tell me how to run my company?"

Paul laughed sarcastically, "Oh my God, your company? You really are something else Stephanie you know that? This isn't your company you egotistical bitch."

Stephanie sneered at him as hell fell into the trap, "Are you sure about that?"

Something about the way that she said it and the expression on her face stopped Paul in his tracks. "What's that supposed to mean?" He asked, almost nervously.

She laughed, "That shut you up didn't it? If you weren't sulking like a five year old the other night I would have told you. Hell, you're worse than a five year old, you're worse than Vaughn."

"What the hell are you talking about?" He could tell that she enjoyed every word as she explained.

"My dad has decided to retire after the Royal Rumble next month and I don't mean just from TV. He's retiring from the company, period."

"Don't tell me," Paul sighed and closed his eyes. "He's giving it to you?"

"Dad decided that he could only happily retire if he was certain that a McMahon would still be in charge," she announced smugly. "It made him uncomfortable to think about the company being run by anyone outside of the family. Shane sold his stocks and made it perfectly clear that he has no interest in coming back into WWE in a business sense. He agreed to do two months of TV work but that's all. Therefore dad is going to sign over enough of his stocks to me to make me the majority owner. I was going to get it in his will anyway, he told me that, so it's just happening earlier than planned." Paul tried to cut in but she continued, "His remaining stocks will be left to Nikki in his will as they'll obviously be married. I don't know what he plans to leave to Shane but that's not my concern. The bottom line is that three weeks from tomorrow this place will be mine."

Paul was stunned. "Your dad is retiring and you're going to be what, Chairwoman?"

"Yes I will, and I'll be the head of the board of directors but I don't like the title Chairwoman. I'm going to change the title to President."

"Oh God, your ego is something else," Paul said, trying not to laugh at what he had just heard. "President Stephanie McMahon, I bet you just love the sound of that."

"I do actually," Stephanie confirmed, still sounding smug. "And thanks for your overwhelming support, it's nice to know that you're pleased for me."

Paul wanted to be happy for his wife and he tried to calm himself down as he realised that he had been out of control a couple of minutes before. Then another question came to him. "So you're going to be... President. You'll need someone to take over as CEO?"

"Right, I need to make a decision on that."

"What decision?" Paul asked incredulously. "You know I'm the obvious choice for it."

"Obvious?" Stephanie sighed. "You storm in here shouting, totally out of control, like you did a few minutes ago and you think you're the obvious choice? Frankly I'm trying to find a reason to give it to you but the obvious choice is Nikki."

Paul burst out laughing despite the blatant insult, "Nikki? Are you serious? She's being working here for what? Three, four months? And you want to make her CEO? The board would never go for that."

"Please," Stephanie snorted. "After what I've done for this company in the last few months you think anyone on that board is going to challenge me on an appointment like that? I've got the board wrapped around my little finger besides the fact that as I just said I'll be head of the board by then. If anyone does dare to try and stand in my way, which they won't, I'll have them voted off the board."

Paul's eyes widened, "You can't just remove someone from the board if they don't agree with you."

"You really believe that?" She snorted once more. "I can put anyone's place on the board to a vote at any time I choose once I'm President. I have enough backing for it to go through too, don't worry about that."

Paul shook his head, "This is unreal. I don't understand how you could choose anyone but me for CEO? I've got the experience and I already know the job. Why wouldn't you give it to me? You need to leave Nikki to do her job and she can report to me, she's nowhere near experienced enough for it."

Stephanie picked up her cup of coffee and sipped it as she thought about it. Paul suddenly realised how crazy this was, he had stormed into her office to confront her about not using him on the show and about how he was not happy at home and somehow she had taken control of the conversation and turned it into some kind of crazy job interview.

"You're right," Stephanie agreed after a minute. "You do have the experience but I have great confidence in Nikki's ability. She's been my second in command since she started, plus..." It seemed to Paul that she did not want to say the next thing but he pushed her.

"Plus what?"

"I don't have concerns about her attitude."

That did it for Paul, he saw red and jumped up, yelling, "You have concerns about my attitude? Who the fuck are you? Seriously, I mean this from the bottom of my heart. Fuck you Stephanie."

She raised an eyebrow which only made him even more livid. "Fuck me?" She yelled. "No Paul, fuck you! In this office I'm your boss, not your wife and you will not speak to me like that or I'll.."

"Fuck me? I'm not the only person you'd fuck though am I you little slut?"

Satisfyingly he saw her eyes widen, "What did you just call me?"

He leaned right over her desk and clarified, "I called you a slut. That's what you are. You fucked John Cena behind my back and you were going to do the same to your precious 'Rocky'. You're a slut."

"But you forgave me for that, I was sick," Stephanie whined, tears filling her eyes.

"Oh you're definitely sick," he laughed sarcastically. "But clearly I haven't forgiven you. Be honest, how many others have you been with?"

Stephanie jumped up and exploded, "How dare you?"

He laughed sarcastically, enjoying himself now, "Come on Steph, just tell me. How many of the guys have you been with? Hey, have you been with Nikki? Is that baby even mine?"

"Get out!" She screamed as loudly as she could. "You can't speak to me like that! I'm your boss and I'm your wife!"

"I think I've just realised that you haven't been my wife for a long time." With that parting shot Paul stormed out of the office, slamming the door behind him, and headed for the elevator. He had to get out of the place. He banged the button repeatedly to call the elevator and when it finally arrived he walked inside. As the doors slid closed he raged to himself, "Fucking bitch."

Stephanie sat in her office boiling at the way he had spoken to her and at his parting comment, but then she thought that maybe she was really the one to blame for the whole thing. "What are you trying to say Paul?" She breathed to herself. "You want to divorce me? Oh my God what have I done?"


	32. Chapter 32

Stephanie was worried to say the least as she sat in the cabin of the jet which was ready to fly her out for Raw. Paul was supposed to be flying with her but he had not shown up. The plane was now ready to leave. "Steph, I said where's Paul?" Repeating himself to his daughter who had just blanked him. "I thought he would have travelled over here with you?"

Stephanie felt tears fill her eyes. She was heartbroken at the thought that Paul actually wanted to leave her. "My god how have I pushed him to this point?" She thought. "It's my head again damn it. I'm shutting him out and I'm not doing what he asks. I'm making him miserable. Why can't I just think like a normal person? Maybe he would be better off if he did divorce me?"

"What is it?" Nikki asked, noticing the tears in her eyes. "What's wrong?"

"I think Paul wants to leave me," Stephanie blurted out.

"What?" Nikki and Vince demanded simultaneously.

"I think he hinted that he wants to divorce me."

Vince's mouth dropped open as Nikki blurted out, "But you only just told him that you're..." She stopped herself but it was too late.

"You're what?" Vince demanded. No one said anything so he turned to Nikki, "What were you about to say?"

"I'm pregnant dad," Stephanie revealed quietly.

Vince's face automatically lit up into a huge smile, "Steph that's fantastic news. Congrat... wait a minute that bastard threatened to divorce you after he found out that you're pregnant?"

"He didn't actually threaten it, it was more like a hint," Stephanie clarified as a tear slipped down her cheek. "He said something like I haven't been his wife for some time or something. It's my fault, my head is not right again, I've been shutting him out."

"That's no excuse," Vince growled angrily.

Nikki moved over to sit next to Stephanie and put an arm around her, "Paul seemed strange this morning but I didn't know it was this bad. And I don't think you're head is the problem, you're on the meds now, right?"

Stephanie leaned into Nikki's hug. "Yes, yes I am. And no, I didn't know it was this bad either."

Vince stood up. "I'm going to tell them to get us in the air. When we get back tomorrow that son of a bitch has got some explaining to do."

* * *

Paul sat at home wondering how the hell his marriage seemed to have disintegrated so quickly. So many thoughts ran through his head and he came to the realisation that it had not actually happened quickly at all. They had been on borrowed time since she forced herself on John Cena and practically made him fuck her. What a slut. She was well along the way to doing the same with Dwayne Johnson too. How on Earth had he let her convince him that she had done it because she had lost her mom? 'My mom died so I just had to fuck John Cena?' Bullshit. Obvious bullshit at that. 'Just to be on the safe side I'll have a go at 'Rocky' too.'

'Rocky.' Even thinking about her saying that made him angry. He had found out that she had been deliberately telling him lies in order to meet up with her precious 'Rocky' and she had done it more than once. She had even lied to Shane to get Shane to lie to him about it to cover herself. Filthy, bullshitting little slut, that was what she was.

Hell, was it even his baby that she was carrying? Maybe it was 'Rocky's' baby? Maybe it belonged to someone else his slut of a wife has decided to open her legs for? All of those Thursday nights in a hotel room supposedly by herself? Yeah, right. She had probably had them all up there... Ambrose, Orton, Jericho, Rollins... hell, she probably even had a go at Kane.

He laughed ironically as he thought about a question he had asked her earlier, what if she actually has been with Nikki too? It would not be much of a surprise. He thought back to when he and Stephanie had first got together. She was the same even back then. She did not give a damn that he was engaged to someone else. Stephanie wanted something so Stephanie took it. It was always about what she wanted.

He took a drink from the beer he was working on, his fourth. He did not have to worry about getting drunk as he had not told Marissa that he had not flown out with everyone else for Raw so she would still have the girls tonight as usual. Thinking about the flight started his mind going again and he could just imagine her sitting there practically forcing tears out of hers eyes and saying 'Daddy guess what Paul said to me? He called me a slut when I told him that I'm pregnant and he doesn't want the baby. He wants to leave me daddy.'

"You're damn right I want to leave you, bitch," he growled at the empty living room. "You can take your precious company and this so called marriage and stick them up your ass."

He had just realised that he did not have much of a problem walking away from Stephanie, as he had sat and raged for the entire evening he had convinced himself that he was starting to hate her. What he did have a problem with was the girls. He I could not walk away from his daughters and there was no way on Earth that Stephanie would give up custody of them either. Whether he hated the bitch or not there was no denying that she was a good mom and she loved the girls just as much as he did. He finished his beer and immediately started on another. Then the idea hit him. If neither of them wanted to give up custody of the girls he could fight her in court.

After thinking about it for a few minutes he had decided. Yes, that was what he would do. He could quit his job and do something else that meant he did not have to travel. Hell, the first thing Stephanie would do would be to fire him anyway so there was no decision to make there. She did not deserve the satisfaction, fuck that. With a sarcastic laugh he thought that she could make Nikki her CEO. Who would give someone that inexperienced a job like that? Stephanie did not have a clue, the stupid fucking idiot.

Draining his beer once more he thought about how the courts would look at the custody case. On one side there was a successful businessman with no record of any health problems who could be with his kids every night of the week and on the other hand there was a fucked up psycho bitch who was away on the other side of the country two nights a week and needed to leave her kids with any random family member that she could find. "Best of luck with that one Stephanie," he mumbled with a derisive laugh.

Another moment of reflection made his decision final. He knew exactly what he would do. Picturing the scene was very satisfying. He would walk into that office she was so proud of tomorrow when she got back and tell her that he quit and that he wanted a divorce. "Raise an eyebrow at that, bitch."


	33. Chapter 33

After Raw was over and everyone had returned to the hotel Nikki had gone to Stephanie's room. "I thought you might want to talk?" She asked as Stephanie opened the door.

"What I really need is a drink but I can't do that now." Stephanie moved aside so that Nikki could walk in and then closed the door behind her.

"No you can't, so tell me what happened earlier? How the hell did today go from you telling Paul that you're pregnant to him calling you a slut and wanting to divorce you?" Nikki sat down in one of the room's incredibly comfortable chairs.

Stephanie pulled another chair over, closer to Nikki and sat down herself. "It's all my fault. I've been obsessing again since my dad told me about me taking control of the company. Paul asked me to give him a storyline and I didn't do anything about it. I need to promote him to CEO but I refused to give him a straight answer on it. He totally flipped and started swearing at me."

"Oh God Steph," Nikki sympathised, sounding horrified.

"I'm not done Nikki. Out of nowhere he called me a slut..."

"I know, you said earlier, but why?" Nikki asked, shaking her head in confusion.

"You tell me? He asked how many of the guys I've been with and he even asked if you and I had..."

Nikki scrunched up her face in disgust as she cut in, "That's disgusting. What the hell is wrong with him?"

"I don't know," Stephanie whined sadly. "He was ranting about what happened with John and then he accused me of wanting to be with Ro... Dwayne Johnson as well. I mean, he told me that he forgave me for that and now this. I was sick for God's sake." She began to cry.

"I know sweetheart, don't cry." Nikki took Stephanie's hand, studying her carefully.

"He actually asked how many of the guys I'd been with and he asked me if this is his baby. I've never been spoken to like that in my life and it came from my own husband."

"Do you really think that he wants to divorce you?" Nikki asked.

"Even if he doesn't do it right now the idea is clearly in his head. I'd like to think he wouldn't walk away from me or especially the girls but who knows?"

"Leaving you doesn't mean leaving the girls Steph," Nikki pointed out. "He could fight you for custody of them."

Stephanie's mouth dropped open as she considered that eventuality for the first time. "He can't take my girls from me. He can't do that."

Nikki thought about it for a few moments. "If Paul divorces you and I'm only saying if... And he does want custody of the girls then we have a big problem."

"What do you mean?" Stephanie mumbled, shocked and missing Nikki's accidental use of the word we instead of you.

"Steph, I know this isn't what you want to hear but we have to face facts. He can fight you for custody and he can say that you cheated on him, that you have mental health issues and that you're away at least two nights each week. There's no way that you would win."

Tears poured down Stephanie's face. "Oh my God. What do I do?"

Nikki thought for a moment about what to say next before coming up with, "There's only one thing you really can do. Try to make sure that Paul doesn't divorce you."

"You're right," Stephanie mumbled. She realised that she needed to think and think fast before she saw Paul the next day. She needed to be alone to think. "Nikki I'm going to get some sleep, I feel terrible."

"Do you want me to call someone?" Nikki asked, studying Stephanie carefully once more.

"No I just need sleep and I need to put today behind me." Stephanie stood, followed by Nikki and they shared a hug. "I'll be fine," Stephanie mumbled.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes Nikki, thank you for coming to talk, I'd be lost without you."

"Remember what I said before Steph. No matter what it's always me and you, we always have each other. I love you."

Stephanie felt tears on her cheeks again. "I love you too."

They released each other and Stephanie walked with Nikki to the door. "I'll leave my phone on," Nikki said. "If you need me in the night just call."

"Thank you." Stephanie closed the door then hurried into the bathroom and washed her face, then undressed and got into bed. She knew she would be able to think more clearly if she was comfortable. She lay there for some time trying to think of a way to guarantee that Paul would not divorce her but nothing good enough came to mind. If telling him that she was pregnant had made no difference then what would?

Eventually she came to the realisation that sooner or later Paul almost certainly was going to divorce her if things carried on like this. He had been so angry and he clearly had the idea in his head. "He's already seriously thought about it so what can I do?" She thought. "I'm not giving up custody of my girls. They're the most precious things in my life, my little angels. Come on Steph... think." Eventually she decided that there was only one option, "I'll give him everything that he wants and do everything I can to make this work. I don't want to lose Paul or the girls."

* * *

Nikki wiped a tear of her own from her cheek as she walked away from Stephanie's room. It was a tear produced by anger more than it was by sorrow. It hurt her to see Stephanie crying like that but she had a bigger concern. "I'm not going to let you hurt her Paul," she mumbled to herself. "I can't let you do that. It's time that I got involved in this mess."


	34. Chapter 34

Paul woke up with a hangover and a realisation. He had been with Stephanie for more than fourteen years and they had been married for more than eleven. She was the mother of his three children and she was pregnant again with another. He could not do it, he could not just throw that away, not without at least speaking to her. He could not just walk into her office and tell her that he wanted a divorce and tell her to stick her job up her ass. He had try and speak to her first at least and maybe it would not come to that.

He showered, which helped to clear his headache a little and then dressed for work. When he walked downstairs and looked into the living room and saw empty beer cans everywhere. "Christ how many did I drink?" He thought. "No wonder I wasn't thinking straight." He cleared away the mess and threw it in the trash, feeling bad as he thought back to the previous night. "I sat there telling myself that I hate my wife. What the hell? She's carrying my baby and she's out there working and I'm sitting at home drinking and thinking like that? My god," he remembered, "I called her a slut. I need to speak to her and I need to apologise, I went too far."

As he drove to work he hoped that things would work out when he spoke to Stephanie. Neither of them needed the stress and the girls certainly did not need their parents at each others throats. He had to try his best to make this work, if she did too then maybe they could save their marriage?

* * *

Stephanie woke up feeling determined. She would make things work with Paul, they had been married for over eleven years and she loved him. Not to mention that she was carrying his baby. "I need to speak to him and we need to clear the air," she thought. "I need to make more effort to make sure that he's happy at work and at home. I can do better, I know I can. If he apologises for what he said to me and we both make an effort to make this work we can save our marriage."

She got into the shower and as the hot water ran over her she thought, "I don't want to lose him and I can't lose my girls. I'm about to take over the company and I'm pregnant. I can't do all of this without support, I need Paul in my life. I'll do whatever it takes to make things work out." She looked forward to getting back to the office and speaking to Paul. She had also decided that it was time to make a call. She had decided that the time was right, if she knew what it was going to be about, and she was almost certain that she did. What else could it be with all of the messages that she had ignored in the office and the text messages that she had not replied to?

* * *

"Dad just leave Paul to me, okay?" Stephanie asked on the flight, "You tearing into him isn't going to help anything. Let me talk to him and try to figure things out."

Vince looked undecided until Nikki said, "She's right Vince, you stay out of it."

"Alright," Vince agreed reluctantly, "But if he goes off at you again he's going to answer to me."

"Things will be fine Steph," Nikki reassured her. "Yesterday's news was a big shock to both of you and things got way out of hand, I'm sure that's all that it was."

"Thanks Nikki," Stephanie smiled, hoping that she was right.

"And you make clear to him that if he skips a show again that there will be consequences," Vince added. "You're going to be running the company in three weeks and you can't let things like that slide, no matter who it is."

"Yes dad," Stephanie sighed. "I know how to run the company and I know what can't be tolerated. I don't have a problem with being Paul's boss or Nikki's boss or anyone else's for that matter."

"That's my girl," Vince smiled.

Nikki watched Stephanie, her face expressionless. Stephanie was not the only one feeling nervous about how things would work out when they got back to the office.

* * *

Stephanie closed her office door and sat down at her desk. She had only just arrived in the building and she wanted to get this call done before she went to see Paul. She had been putting it off for long enough, time had been on her side. She was also looking forward to clearing the air with Paul and getting their marriage back on track. Today was going to be a good day. Taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly she touched the name on the screen of her cell phone and made the call. After a few rings she heard, "Steph? I've been calling you for a month or more."

"Yes I know, and you've sent text messages," Stephanie said, a slight edge to her voice.

"Well, you didn't call me back."

"No I didn't but I am now."

"I was about to start approaching other people, I've been trying you for weeks."

"The time wasn't right until now, things are changing around here."

The voice at the other end of the call paused for a moment. "We need to talk, in person."

"Is this about a problem or an opportunity?" Stephanie asked, and then smiled, "Or does that depend which end of the call you're on?"

She heard a humorless laugh, "That's real cute. It's an opportunity for you, don't worry."

"I thought it might be. I'm in Boston on Thursday night for Smackdown. We can have dinner afterwards and you can present your 'opportunity'."

"Thursday? I can do that. Call me with when an where?"

"I'll do that."

"Goodbye Stephanie."

"Goodbye Rocky," she said sweetly and ended the call with a smile on her face, almost certain that she knew what the opportunity was going to be.


	35. Chapter 35

Paul had decided that he knew how he wanted to approach the conversation with Stephanie when it happened. He would apologise for the way he had spoken to her and the things that he had said but he would also make it perfectly clear to her that he wanted things to change. Her attitude needed to change at home and she needed to fix things at work. She needed to get him back into a storyline and she needed to give him the CEO position. Giving it to Nikki would be both stupid and unfair, surely she would see that now that they were not in the middle of a heated argument? He drained his coffee and finished reading through the report on his desk and was about to leave to go and see Stephanie as he knew she would be back in the office by now, but his own office door opened and Stephanie walked in, smiling. "Hi honey."

He stood and walked around his desk and they hugged. "Hi Steph. Listen I'm sorry about yesterday, I don't know what came over me."

"I'm sorry too," Stephanie said, releasing the hug. "You were right about some of the things you said. I'm going to speak to my team and have something written for you. I have an idea that I think you'll like but we'll talk about that another time."

Paul sat down in one of the chairs in front of his desk and Stephanie sat in the other as Paul said, "Thank you, I really hate not being on the show."

"I know, I shouldn't have let your character get stale like this. I've also realised that you were right, you're the obvious choice for the CEO position when I take control. Nikki can stay in her job and work under you or I can move her somewhere else if you don't want her. It's up to you."

Nikki was actually beginning to irritate Paul lately as she always seemed to be involved in his business, at least any part of it that involved his wife but to keep the peace he decided, "I'll keep her. I like Nikki and if she's as good as you say she is... So the creative team will be working for me then?"

"Yes," Stephanie assured him. "Everything that I'm in charge of now will be yours. Obviously you'll report to me and I'll make changes if I see fit but yes you're in charge of creative and production. That means that it will be you that is away for the shows and I'll stay home with the girls."

Paul's eyebrows raised, "Shows as in both? You're not going to be at Raw or Smackdown?"

"Not after I take control. What would be the point? You'll be in charge of production and my character is unable to be used after the last storyline so I won't be back on TV for a long time what with being pregnant and all. It will be good for the girls not to be away from both of us every Monday night anyway."

Paul was happy that things were going exactly as he had hoped, a promotion, a storyline and control of the creative and production teams once Stephanie took charge of the company sounded great. Her mention of being pregnant reminded him of what he had said the day before and he felt guilty. "Steph I'm so happy that we're going to have another baby. I know it was a shock for us both yesterday and things got crazy but I really couldn't be happier."

Stephanie smiled, "Me too. It's going to be tough being in charge here and being pregnant, I'm going to need help from you."

"I'm here for you so don't worry," he assured her. Reluctantly he felt as though he had to add, "and so is Nikki."

"So you are pleased for me after all?"

Paul leaned over and kissed her and laughed, "Of course I am, President Stephanie McMahon. It does have a ring to it."

"It sounds better than Chairwoman," Stephanie grinned. "There's one other thing that I need to talk to you about."

"Go for it," Paul smiled, suddenly feeling a lot happier about life.

"I'm meeting with Dwayne Johnson on Thursday night after Smackdown."

The smile faded from Paul's face. "Why would you do that?"

"We need to talk business. He hasn't said as much but I think he wants to sell TNA to me. To WWE I mean."

"You have an office up the hallway there that you can talk business in," Paul pointed out irritably.

Stephanie bristled and launched into a rant, "Do you think I want my dad to know about this? I'm the one who pushed TNA to this point. I led from the front the whole time and got our ratings above theirs again. I reworked all of the storylines, I got everyone back out there giving one hundred percent twice a week. I went into that boardroom and spent an entire afternoon reading them the riot act and got their backing because of it. I went through that stage at Survivor Series God damn it. This is my war and I think I'm about to win it. Do you really think I'm going to let my dad be the one that signs off on WWE purchasing TNA? Do you really think it's going to be my dad that shuts them down and finishes this for good? No, it's going to be me Paul. Me!"

Paul was staggered by her passion. "Christ Steph, if it means that much to you..."

"You know what this means to me. You were in that locker room that night when I swore that I'd do this for mom. I swore it and I've done it, at least I think I have."

"So you don't want your dad to know about this?"

"You and I are the only ones who are to know about this until I take control," Stephanie insisted. "Am I clear on that?"

Paul was instantly irritated by that. "You don't have to speak like that, like you're my boss. You could just have said yes."

"I am your boss. When we're at work if I tell you to do something you do it the same as everyone else. Do we still have an issue with this? If anyone else around here said something like that to me..."

He put a hand up to stop her, not wanting another argument, "No, it's just strange, I don't have an issue."

"Good."

"Why does Dwayne want to sell TNA to us?" He asked, wanting to change the subject. "Why not someone else?"

This set Stephanie off again, "Who would buy it? We're above them in ratings and climbing, their stocks are tanking, there's no way they can compete with me... us. They're done and he knows it. Let's be honest he never wanted this anyway, he bought that company to get back into the wrestling business because my dad wouldn't offer him anything. Rocky is no businessman, he's an actor and a wrestler, he's probably had enough. I already know what's going to happen, he's going to demand that WWE pay over the odds for TNA and that we sign him to whatever contract he wants here that still allows him time in Hollywood when he needs it. What Rocky doesn't know is that he doesn't have to worry about dealing with my dad. He probably thinks that this will be the first discussion that I can go back and tell my dad and the board about but instead I can agree to whatever he wants in three weeks time and force it past the board myself. Frankly I don't care what he asks for and I don't care if the board members care either. It's going to be a lot easier than he thinks for me to take that company from him and get rid of it like yesterday's trash."

She had not noticed her double mistake but Paul had. He had not listened to the final part of what she had said as he felt his anger building. "Rocky again now is it? Let that slip out didn't you sweetheart?" He thought sarcastically. Despite what Stephanie had just said he tried to keep himself under control, "Maybe it's nothing. Hell, she just effectively promoted me and gave me exactly what I wanted. Keep your mouth shut Paul and things will improve here and at home, right? She's clearly realised how crazy she's been acting."

He managed to hide his anger from his wife, "Well then I hope that is what he wants to discuss with you. Closing TNA down will be huge for us."

"I'm sure that it is," she grinned. "I'm going to be in control of the whole wrestling industry now that that joke Ring of Honor company folded."

Paul smiled but he was thinking, "Always I or me, not us. She's fucking unbelievable."

"Steph I've got a lot of calls to make and I'm a long way behind on these reports. I'll see you at home, okay?"

Stephanie stood and then leaned down and kissed him, "Okay, don't be late, I'll make dinner."

Stephanie left and Paul stood and returned to the correct side of his desk, thinking, "I just made up a reason to get my wife out of my office, she's starting piss me off that much. And she fucking said Rocky again too. God fucking damn it I hate that so much!"


	36. Chapter 36

Paul had spent the last half hour working. He had decided to ignore the fact that Stephanie had said 'Rocky' again even though it pissed him off something crazy. Aside from that the conversation had not been too bad, he had gotten everything that he had hoped for. He was interrupted from his work by a knock on his office door. Sighing at the impending interruption as when he had told Stephanie that he was behind with his reports it had actually been true and he had deliberately arranged for no meetings this afternoon to give himself time to catch up. "Yeah?" He yelled irritably.

The door opened and Nikki walked in. "Do you have a minute to talk?"

What was it with this woman? She was really going to come in here and start asking about what happened with Stephanie? Everything that his wife was involved in Nikki was there like she was her fucking shadow or her guardian angel or something. He was really getting tired of it fast. "Not really Nikki, I'm busy. What is it?"

Nikki sat down in front of Paul's desk despite what he had just said. "How did it go with Steph? I know she came in here."

Paul fought his irritation as much as he could. "Why don't you go ask her? As I said, I'm busy."

Nikki raised an eyebrow, apparently something that she had picked up from Stephanie and it was equally if not more irritating to Paul to see it from her. "Seriously? She's in a meeting with someone and Lucy said she will busy for the rest of the afternoon. Why do you have a problem talking to me?"

"Things went okay," Paul began, somehow managing not to give the first answer that came to mind, which was a lot less pleasant. "She's promoting me to CEO and I'm going to be in charge of creative and production as Steph is now. It's just her ego that gets to me, she's... I don't know... she just irritates me. I'm considering talking to her about marriage counselling."

Paul thought that he saw a hint of something in Nikki's eyes at the mention of his promotion. Jealousy maybe? She also reacted to the mention of marriage counselling. "You should consider taking a vacation, give yourselves a break from each other."

Paul could control himself no more. "I don't need you to tell me about my marriage and what I should do."

"This is exactly your problem," Nikki said, not backing down. "This is the problem with your marriage..."

"I'll tell you the problem with this marriage!" Paul exploded. "It's that pointy thing on the front of your fucking face! It's always in our fucking business! Fuck off out of my office! Fuck off out of my life! Fuck off out of both of our lives! Just fuck off!"

Nikki had stood up during Paul's rant and it had shocked her but she had seen Stephanie bark at people often enough and they always backed down from her and she had encouraged Nikki to learn to do it too. Nothing had pushed Nikki far enough, until now. "I'm trying to help you, you fucking idiot!" She screamed back. "Steph is doing her best, you don't know how hard it is when you're sick like she is. She's desperate for your marriage to work, she's carrying your baby and you don't have a fucking clue how to support her!"

Paul could not believe what he had just heard. "That's my wife you're talking about..."

"And she's my step-daughter!" Nikki yelled right back. "You're making her miserable you bastard! She's doing her best trying to make this place work, she's struggling with her illness and she's carrying your baby for fuck's sake and what are you doing? Telling her that you want a divorce and calling her a slut? Why don't you do us all a favour and fuck off yourself?"

"That's the most one sided bullshit I've ever heard! Get the fuck out of my office Nikki! Now!"

Nikki stormed towards the door and as she was about to leave she turned around to face him once more. "You're a real asshole Paul," she said icily. "I can see now why Steph struggles so much with you for a husband. Frankly I don't know how she has put up with you this long." With that she stormed out and slammed the door behind her.

Paul sat down and felt himself boiling. Who the hell did that bitch think she was? It was as if she actually thought she was Stephanie's mother or some crazy shit. Even if she did think that how could she look at everything completely from Stephanie's side like that? What about what was best for him? All anyone thought about was what was best for Stephanie. No one gave a fuck about how he felt apart from himself. The girls would be just as happy if not more so with him if he got a divorce, he was sure of that. He had already seriously thought about divorcing Stephanie but maybe it did not have to come to that. He decided to suggest marriage counselling that night when he get home, unable to see what else could save his marriage at this point.

His thoughts moved on to Nikki, the little bitch who had wormed her way so snugly into Stephanie's life and now would not stop interfering in it. He never should have kept asking Nikki to help Stephanie, all along he had thought having Nikki around was helping but looking where they were now revealed the truth. Their lives were a mess, their marriage was damn near destroyed and their family was falling apart. How could it have been worse than this if Nikki had been there supposedly helping? When they talked later he needed to speak to Stephanie about Nikki and she needed to stop relying on Nikki and rely on him instead. He convinced himself that it was not that Nikki was doing this on purpose, she thought that she was helping Stephanie but really she was not.

* * *

As Nikki had stormed out of Paul's office she had nearly walked right into Vince. Nikki figured that Paul's secretary must have gone to fetch him as the shouting could not have been hard for her to hear. "Nikki what's going on?" Vince demanded.

Nikki let out a deep breath and tried to stop herself shaking with anger. She had never yelled at someone like that in her life, Stephanie's influence had definitely started to take effect on her. She was learning. "Not now Vince," she growled angrily. "Paul is driving me crazy. He's making Steph ill, he's ranting and swearing at me, he's making everyone miserable, he's becoming a real problem. I'm going to get some air."

Vince sighed as he watched Nikki storm away. As she did so Nikki considered that Paul and Stephanie getting a divorce might not have been what she intended but maybe it was time for her to adapt. A divorce could work.


	37. Chapter 37

Later that night after he had taken his turn to read the bed times stories to the girls Paul entered the living room and sat down on the couch next to Stephanie. "Are they all okay?" She asked, looking away from the TV.

"Yeah," Paul smiled. "Vaughn asks for the same story every day."

"Bless her," Stephanie smiled back, "She loves that one so much."

Paul could not wait any longer to approach the subject that had been on his mind all afternoon. "Steph I think there's something going on with Nikki."

"How do you mean?" Stephanie asked.

"She came into my office earlier and she was sticking her nose in our business again. I mentioned that you said that you were promoting me to CEO and I saw some kind of reaction from her, I'm sure of it."

"Don't do this Paul," Stephanie sighed. "Don't start trying to come between Nikki and I..."

"I'm not," Paul insisted. "I'm telling you what I saw. I lost it with her and told her to fuck off out of my office and she told me to do everyone a favour and fuck off out of all of your lives."

"Why would you speak to her like that, huh?" Stephanie demanded angrily. "Why would you do that? After everything Nikki has done for me you speak to her like that? And then she reacts to it and you're making her out to be the one in the wrong?"

"Would you calm down?" Paul said, not really surprised that much by Stephanie illogical reaction. "I'm telling you that there's something going on with her. Think about it, all this time that she's been 'helping' you, how much worse could our lives actually be at this point?"

"What is that supposed to mean?" Stephanie's voice rose as she turned off the TV.

Her attitude and her blind defence of Nikki was making Paul angry himself. "What I mean is you're obviously still sick, our marriage is falling apart, our family is suffering because of it and you're too obsessed with taking over the damn company to realise it. As I said, how could things be any worse right now?"

Stephanie jumped up and yelled, "I'm trying my fucking best! I gave you everything you wanted earlier when we talked in your office and now you come with this? Why are you always trying to drag me down? It's no surprise that I'm always sick!"

"I'm not trying to drag you down," Paul yelled back, frustration taking over. "I'm not even talking about you. I'm trying to talk to you about Nikki for God's sake!"

"Well don't talk to me about Nikki! Don't talk to me about anything! She said that you would do this! I'm out of here!"

She stormed out of the room and Paul followed. He demanded, "What do you mean you're out of here?"

Stephanie had picked up her car keys and she was putting a coat on, "I can't live like this Paul. Nikki was right earlier, she said you would do this. I need a break from you and I'm going to take Nikki's advice and stay at their house."

"What do you mean she said I would do this?" Paul asked a lot more quietly, concerned to say the least.

Stephanie was making to leave the room but she stopped in the doorway and turned around. "Nikki came to me before I left the office. She told me about all of the abuse you threw at her and she said that for some reason you seem to hate her and that the next thing you would try would be turning me against her. Well, we know what you're doing Paul and I'm not going to listen to it. I don't know why you're being like this but I'm going to stay at their house, I need to get away from you."

Paul was so stunned that his anger actually subsided and was replaced by the realisation that Nikki was actually trying to end his marriage. What the fuck was she doing? "My God, what is she doing? Why is she filling your head with this bullshit?"

Stephanie looked at him and her expression was a mixture of sadness and pity. "What happened to you Paul? I used to love you so much and now I can't stand you. The one person who is always there for me and supports me and you try to poison me against her. I can't even look at you any more."

Paul's head was spinning. "What the fuck is going on? This is crazy, she's the one poisoning you against me! Can't you see that?"

Stephanie shook her head, walked down the hallway and opened the front door and was half way through it by the time Paul caught up to her and grabbed her arm. "Stop. Listen to me for a minute, this is fucked up..."

Stephanie looked at her arm where Paul was holding it and then as she looked him in the eye and her eyes burned into him. "Don't touch me like that again. Actually don't touch me at all again, ever. Stay away from me."

Paul let go of Stephanie's arm in shock and she quickly stormed out of the door and slammed it behind her. Paul's head was still spinning. "What the fuck are you doing Nikki, you fucking bitch?" He breathed to himself

* * *

Vince and Nikki had just finished eating dinner. As Nikki loaded the dishwasher Vince worked on the second glass of pineapple juice that Nikki had made for him. He hoped that he knew what that meant for later, there was only usually one thing that Nikki serving him pineapple juice meant. Nikki finished what she was doing and turned to face him. "Vince I've been thinking about something."

"What's that sweetheart?"

Nikki walked over and stood over Vince as he sat at the table. She continued in her sweet, soft voice as she looked right into his eyes, "I was thinking about what you said when you proposed to me. We're not here forever and you never know what's going to happen. I want to marry you Vince."

"We already did this," Vince laughed. "I asked you to marry me and you said yes."

Nikki smiled, "I mean that I want to marry you as soon as possible, cuddle bear. I love you and I want to commit myself to you for the rest of our lives."

Vince was surprised to say the least as he stood and hugged her. "The rest of my life you mean," he clarified with a small laugh. "You really mean it don't you? You want to get married as soon as we can?"

"Of course I do. If we do it before you retire we can take as long as we like for our honeymoon after you retire. Steph won't mind me taking time out of the office. What do you think?"

"I'd love to darling," Vince grinned, the idea of a holiday alone sounded great, let alone a honeymoon after marrying Nikki. "I was going to suggest that we keep it to a small family service anyway. We can invite Steph, Paul and the girls, Shane, Marissa and the boys and Daniel, Brie and your parents. How does that sound?"

Vince saw Nikki's eyes fill with tears as she looked up at him. "That sounds perfect, so perfect. I love you so much."

"I love you too sweetheart," Vince almost whispered and kissed her.

Nikki returned his kiss and Vince pulled her closer to him, wrapping his arms around her. The kissing grew more intense and after a long moment Nikki pulled away just long enough to purr, "Carry me upstairs."

Not needing to be told twice Vince picked her up and she lay sideways in his arms, stretching up so that she could continue to kiss him. As he carried her up the stairs her continual kisses added to the smell and taste of her finally began to generate a reaction and he felt himself begin to harden. It frustrated him that it took longer than it had in the past but he knew that Nikki would not take all that long to get him there when they were in the bedroom. He carried her into the bedroom and as he put her down on the bed she pulled him down on top of her and then rolled him over and Vince felt her tearing his pants open and he groaned in pleasure at the anticipation of what was to come next. A few seconds later Nikki had his length in her hand and she began to work her lips up and down the side of it, caressing him with them as her hand moved up and down him.

He began to get harder and Nikki began to lick him as her hand continued its work she licked around the tip of his shaft and Vince could not help himself groaning again in pleasure. After a couple of minutes of this he reached the point where he was as hard as he could be and she did the thing the he liked the most, she pushed his foreskin back with her lips and then ever so gently nibbled on him just below where the head of his penis met the shaft. It always drove him wild when she did that and now her hand began to work more firmly and slightly quicker and he began to thrust slightly in rhythm with the movements she was making with her head and mouth. She added even more pleasure a couple of minutes later as he approached his climax, which sadly did not take him long any more, by taking his testicles in one hand and squeezing them just the perfect amount to give the slightest sensation of pain and the absolute confirmation that she was in complete control of him.

She moaned as loudly as he did as he came and she took all of it in her mouth and made sure that she looked him in the eye as she swallowed it. She would only do that if he had been drinking pineapple juice. Vince had no idea why and right now he did not care in the least. "I love you Nikki," he said with a very satisfied smile.


	38. Chapter 38

Nikki gave Vince a few minutes to recover before she removed her top and her bra and she saw Vince smiling as he looked at her. "You like what you see, cuddle bear?" She knew that her breasts were one of the things he liked most about her.

"Oh, you know I do," Vince assured her. "Come here."

Nikki did not get a chance to do as Vince asked because they heard Stephanie shouting from downstairs, "Dad? Nikki?" Clearly she had used her key to let herself in.

Vince and Nikki began scrambling to get their clothes sorted out. "What is she doing here?" Vince whispered.

"Probably Paul upset her again," Nikki replied with a shake of her head.

"Dad? Nikki?" Stephanie's voice was upstairs now.

"Uh... wait out there Stephanie," Vince shouted, sounding as embarrassed as he felt.

"Oh God, sorry," the heard. "I'll wait downstairs."

"It's a good thing that wasn't embarrassing," Nikki giggled. Vince had his clothes fixed and he was about to leave the bedroom but Nikki stopped him as she put her top back on. "You stay here Vince, I've got this."

"Are you sure?" Vince asked. "She's my daughter."

"I know and she's my step-daughter," Nikki smiled. "Just give me some time with her."

Vince's heart melted at that, how caring Nikki was for Stephanie was so touching. "Your step-daughter? That's so sweet Nikki."

Nikki kissed Vince on the forehead. "It's true Vince, at least it will be very soon. It might seem strange as she's older than me but I love Steph as if she's my own daughter."

"You don't know what that means to me."

"I should clean my teeth before I go downstairs," Nikki giggled again. "I may have bad breath thanks to you."

"That's disgusting," Vince laughed. "Get out of here." Nikki did just that and spent a few minutes in the bathroom before heading downstairs to speak to Stephanie.

Stephanie saw Nikki walk into the living room and she jumped up and rushed over to her, already almost in tears, "He did it Nikki, just like you said."

"Oh no," Nikki said sadly, hugging her tightly. "I just knew it. Don't cry Steph." Nikki's comfort caused Stephanie to cry anyway, she could not help herself. "Sit down sweetheart," Nikki urged softly. Stephanie did as Nikki said and as she did so Nikki sat next to her and continued in the same voice, "Come here."

Stephanie accepted Nikki's embrace, curling her legs up on the couch and resting her head on Nikki's shoulder and chest. Being held by Nikki was comforting as was her voice, "Don't cry any more please. You're away from him now sweetheart and he can't upset you like this any more. You can stay here with Vince and with me. Would you like that?"

Stephanie wiped away the tears from her eyes with one hand, "Yes I would. You always try to help and he always makes me feel worse."

"I know, I know," Nikki soothed. "You know what we've always told each other Steph, it's me and you no matter what happens, right?"

"Right," Stephanie agreed, holding on to Nikki even tighter.

Nikki's eyes filled with genuine tears. It hurt her to see Stephanie suffering so much with what her tortured mind was putting her through but she thought, "Only two weeks now Steph. I'll end all of this suffering for you in two weeks. I can't believe Paul or Vince haven't figured out what I figured out so long ago. I know you're suffering right now but it will all be over in two weeks." She carried on speaking in the soothing tone she had perfected. "That's right, me and you and in less than three weeks we are going to take over the company so I need you to try to calm down for me. I don't want you to get sick again, okay?"

Stephanie took a minute to stop herself crying. It was not actually hard with Nikki holding her and comforting her. "Can I stay here tonight and tomorrow please?" She asked quietly.

Nikki stroked Stephanie's hair. "Of course you can. Why only two nights?"

"It's Smackdown Thursday night..." Nikki was about to say, "Of course it is," but Stephanie had continued, "And I have my meeting."

"What meeting sweetheart?" Nikki asked with genuine curiosity,

Stephanie realised her mistake but she knew that she could trust Nikki more than anyone else in her life. "If I tell you I need you not to tell dad."

"Of course," Nikki readily agreed, now even more interested.

"Promise me Nikki."

"What do I keep telling you?" Nikki soothed. "Me and you Steph, you know you can trust me. I promise."

"Right, sorry. I'm meeting with Rocky and he wants to sell TNA to me, to WWE."

Nikki's eyes widened and her heart began to beat faster. She hoped that Stephanie would not notice as her head was still resting on her shoulder and chest. "You're sure about that?" She asked, keeping her excitement out of her voice.

"Not sure but what else could he want to meet with me for?"

Nikki gently probed for information, "Why would he come to you instead of Vince?"

Having total trust in Nikki Stephanie revealed, "Firstly he hates dad and secondly, we have feelings for each other."

Nikki's eyes widened again which was of course unseen by Stephanie, "You what?"

"I kissed him Nikki. Last year at Wrestlemania. I couldn't resist him and it was so amazing. We met once while I was sick and we were going to meet again the night John abducted me. If we had I know that something would have happened. He's crazy about me and I could not have resisted him."

Nikki was screaming, "Holy shit!" inside but she still managed to keep calm. "So what if something happens after your meeting on Thursday?"

Stephanie moved her head and looked Nikki in the eye. "I can't let that happen can I?"

Maybe it would be good for you?" Nikki said after supposedly taking a long moment to think it through.

With her head pounding from the stress of the night and confusion at what Nikki had just said Stephanie simply asked, "Why?" Stephanie continued to look into Nikki's eyes as she spoke in that voice that comforted her so much. Nikki always knew what to do.

"Think about all of the stress," Nikki began. "All of the tension and all of the heartache you've had with Paul. Maybe a night with Rocky would release all of that from your mind? Think how good that would feel sweetheart."

Stephanie imagined what it would be like to feel no stress, no pain, no anxiety. She had to imagine as she could not remember. "You really think that could happen?"

"I can't say for sure but it's only me and you who know about it so you're not risking anything are you?"

Stephanie rested her head back on Nikki's chest again. "Paul knows about it."

Nikki stroked Stephanie's hair once more. "He knows about the meeting but he won't know if anything happens after it will he?"

For a long moment there was silence. "I can't wait for Thursday now," Stephanie announced eventually.

"Neither can I sweetheart," Nikki replied. This at least was honest. "You look so stressed and tired Steph, you should try to get some sleep."

"Okay, I will. My head is pounding too."

"I bet it is," Nikki soothed. "Let's go upstairs and get you to bed and I'll get you something for that."

Stephanie got up and so did Nikki and then Stephanie followed Nikki upstairs. Stephanie's childhood bedroom was now a guest bedroom and she instinctively headed for it. "Get into bed sweetheart and I'll bring you something for your head."

A few minutes later Nikki returned with a glass of water and some pain pills and gave them to Stephanie who was now sitting up in bed. Stephanie took the pills with a drink of water. "Thank you Nikki, I don't know what I would do without you."

Nikki kissed Stephanie on the forehead, "You're never going to be without me. Me and you remember?"

"Of course," Stephanie smiled. "Goodnight."

"Goodnight Steph."

Nikki walked out of the room and closed the door. As she did so she smiled as she considered that this was the best day ever. Vince was going to marry her before he retired, Stephanie had walked out on Paul and she had the perfect opportunity to ruin their marriage for good and on top of all of that WWE is about to buy TNA! "Holy shit!" She breathed to herself. Things could not possibly be working out better than this.


	39. Chapter 39

Wednesday had been another perfect day for Nikki. She had talked Vince into the idea of both Stephanie and herself taking the day out of the office to look for a wedding dress. This had several benefits. Firstly it had been a chance to spend time with Stephanie and try to make her feel a little better, she really did not want Stephanie to suffer as she was, it was just something that was necessary right now but she had truly come to love her step-daughter. Secondly it kept Stephanie and Paul apart in case he made another attempt to get their marriage on track. She was going to make sure that that was not going to happen. Thirdly they had actually bought a very expensive and beautiful dress. Nikki did not really care all that much about the dress or the service, marrying Vince was all that mattered.

Now it was Thursday night and Nikki was unable to keep thoughts from going around in her head. Everything she had worked for all this time was so close now. She sat across a table from Vince in the restaurant of their hotel, not taking in anything that he was saying. Instead she was thinking that Stephanie had gone to her dinner with Dwayne Johnson and she felt sure that she was going to sleep with him afterwards, at least if she was right about how the guy felt about her. She was going in there with her head full of that crap Nikki herself had fed her and apparently 'Rocky' would jump at the chance if Stephanie presented it to him. "Please guys don't let me down," she thought. "I need this to happen. I need that stupid marriage over and I need Paul out of WWE and this way will be so much easier than what I planned originally. No one has to die this way." She answered a question from Vince but did not let it interrupt her thoughts. "Once that asshole is out of the picture at WWE and out of Steph's life I've done the hard part. I'm marrying Vince so that's covered. It's not as if I don't love the guy, at least I've grown to love him. He's really sweet and he has been so good to me and to see how much Steph's illness hurts him is horrible."

Nikki drank some of her wine as she thought sadly about the suffering that Stephanie had been going through unnecessarily for so long, "I still can't believe that Paul or Vince have never realised the obvious, whoever they hired to handle Steph's therapy made a complete mess of it. She's still got all of the bad memories on her mind all of the time and I don't think she's even on the right meds. How can she be, look at the state she's in and how she's acting most of the time. Don't worry Steph as soon as Vince and I are married and he retires I will 'suddenly realise' this and you'll get the help you need."

She smiled which Vince naturally and incorrectly assumed was directed at him, "Then who will be left to run the company? No Vince, no Steph and certainly no Paul. All I have to do if Vince doesn't come up with the idea himself is remind him how desperate he was to ensure that a McMahon stayed in charge. Obviously I won't own the place as Steph is getting the stocks and I don't know what her salary is going to increase to when she's president but I do know what she makes now." Her heart began to race as she thought about it, "Make me Acting Chairwoman Vince and match my contract with Steph's current one. True, the board won't like it but you and Steph can handle that between you. One million dollars a year plus three hundred thousand to appear on screen. Holy fucking shit! Plus I'll be in charge of the company until Steph is actually cured of all her issues and who knows how long that will take?"

She imagined herself walking into what was currently Vince's office wearing the most expensive suit she could find and seeing her name on the door. Nikki would hardly be appropriate for something like that so it would obviously have to read Nicole McMahon, Acting Chairwoman. The whole company would be under her control. She knew exactly what the first order of business would be. Fire that miserable old bitch that Vince employed as a secretary. All of those disapproving looks she had given Nikki whenever she had seen her and Vince together. Nikki relished that first meeting greatly.

Nikki discussed with Vince what to order for dessert before she continued to revel in her thoughts, "I'll have a storyline written for me too. I don't just want to be Chairwoman in the office, I want to play the part on TV too. I want my character to be the biggest bitch anyone has ever seen. It will be so much fun. So, what about when Steph finally comes back to work? Obviously she will take charge and there's nothing I can do about that, hell, I'm pleased for her. She deserves it after what she's had to go through to make this possible. I'll have to settle for being CEO I guess. Still I'll be in charge of creative and production which are the most enjoyable things anyway and I'll be the one out there on TV twice a week as Steph can't be. Then she will have to take a bunch more time off when she has the baby and I'll have to step in for her again. This is all just so perfect."

"You make me so happy Vince, to us," she smiled, raising her wine glass.

"To us, I love you." Vince smiled warmly as he touched his glass to Nikki's. They both drank with satisfied smiles on their faces but for very different reasons. Nikki thought, "There's no doubt about it now, I'm taking control."


	40. Chapter 40

Paul had finally had enough. After everything he had done for Stephanie and everything he had put up with from her and everything he had forgiven her for she had been the one to walk out on him. It was truly unbelievable and why had she done it? Because that little bitch Nikki encouraged her to. He did not know what Nikki was trying to achieve but it was obvious that she was up to something. He had tried to call Stephanie but she was even ignoring his calls. He had decided almost for sure that he wanted to get this craziness out of his life and out of the girls lives too, and if that meant getting a divorce then that would be what he would have to do.

The other realisation had been that he no longer trusted his wife. For that reason he had travelled to Boston and it had not been hard to find out which hotel 'Rocky' was staying in. Paul had checked into the same hotel and earlier in the evening he had made a deal with one of the servers who was working in the restaurant that afternoon, after slipping him some money for confirmation that 'Rocky' had reserved a table for two.

The guy would come back and eat in the restaurant that night and keep watch on Stephanie and 'Rocky' and if he saw anything happen between them or if Stephanie went into the elevators with him instead of leaving to go back to her own hotel he would get a picture of it with his phone and Paul would find out immediately as he waited in the bar. It was a very unusual request but there was no personal risk to the server and it was worth the wasted evening for the amount of money that Paul had offered.

* * *

Stephanie was struggling already as she chatted with Rocky. It was bad form to discuss business before the food arrived so they had been making general conversation for the last half hour. Stephanie had not mentioned her pregnancy or her marriage problems and she had even ordered a glass of wine to help her nerves. She felt guilty about drinking as she was pregnant but she really needed it. Her mind was telling her so many things at the same time. She knew that she should not do anything other than talk business and then leave but Nikki's words from Tuesday night kept repeating themselves to her. Nikki always new what to do, when was Nikki ever wrong? Plus it was Rocky, she had felt something for him even before her illness and she had kissed him and it had been so good. She had felt something stir inside of her as soon as she saw Rocky when she walked into the restaurant. It was all so confusing, life was torture sometimes. Why was it that even when she kept taking her meds she still could not think properly? When would this ever end?

The food was delivered and it was time to talk business as they ate but Stephanie heard Dwayne ask her, "Are you sure you're okay?"

"I'm okay," she insisted, "Just a lot of stress at work. Can we talk about why you wanted to meet with me?"

Dwayne smiled, "Well I might be able to reduce some of that stress for you. I want out Steph, I want to sell TNA. It seems the obvious thing would be to sell to WWE but I don't know how it would go with Vince. I was hoping that if we could agree on something then you could talk to your dad or even just straight to your board and talk them into it. I know you're good at that."

Stephanie managed a smile of her own. "That won't be necessary. If I tell you something can you keep it to yourself?"

"Of course princess."

Stephanie was unsure if she wanted him to keep calling her that, she liked it but she was not sure if she wanted to like it. She tried to focus as she spent longer than she needed to eating her mouthful of food. "In less than three weeks my dad is retiring and I'm taking over the company."

Dwayne's eyes widened. "Holy sh... you're serious?"

"Yeah I am. I figured that this was what you wanted to see me about and I've already thought it through. I'll send some of my people down to your offices and they will go through everything with a fine tooth comb and then they will sit down with your people and agree a fair price which I will pay without any haggling and bullshit. I also imagine that you want a contract with WWE that allows you time in Hollywood whenever you need it, I know that's what you wanted from dad and I'm happy to give it to you."

"It can be that simple?" Dwayne asked, doubtfully.

"I'll be the owner and president of WWE and head of the board, I can do what I want. I doubt anyone on the board will object anyway, it's obvious that buying TNA is good for us."

"Okay then let's do it," Dwayne smiled. "We can discuss my contract another time but if you pay me a fair price for TNA I'll make a huge profit and get out, it's perfect for me, for both of us. It's a deal?"

"It's a deal," Stephanie smiled.

The meal was consumed almost completely in an awkward silence as both Stephanie and Dwayne knew what the other was thinking, yet neither of them wanted to bring it up. "It really is great to see you princess," Dwayne said eventually, having finished eating.

Stephanie's head began to spin and she battled her conflicting thoughts and her confusion and tried to get Nikki's words out her head. She knew that this time Nikki was wrong, sleeping with Rocky was wrong. "Rocky don't do this, I can't do this."

"Do what princess? We both know what would have happened that night when John attacked you, we've both been waiting for this. We both remember what that kiss felt like. You do remember it, right?"

"Yes, it was incredible," Stephanie admitted.

"Exactly. I've got more wine upstairs, let's finish up here and go up?"

"I can't Rocky," Stephanie almost pleaded. "I can't do that to Paul."

Dwayne closed his eyes, "You're sure?"

Stephanie stood to leave, "I'm sorry Rocky. If I was single things would be different but I can't do that to Paul. I'm sorry."

Dwayne stood too and as they both walked away from their table he stopped and Stephanie automatically stopped beside him. "I understand," Dwayne said softly, "But maybe this will change your mind?" He kissed Stephanie and for a few seconds she was lost in it. It was so incredible and she began to return the kiss but then she won the battle she was fighting inside her head and pulled away.

"No Rocky, really I can't. I'm sorry." Even if they had noticed a guy hurrying out of the restaurant it would not have meant anything to them.

Resigned to defeat Dwayne sighed, "Okay princess, don't apologise. In fact I'm sorry, I shouldn't have done that. You made yourself clear and, well I'm sorry okay? Can we forget that I did that?"

Dwayne started walking slowly towards the exit of the restaurant and Stephanie walked alongside once more, "Okay, it's forgotten. So, I'll have some of my people come down as soon as I take over the company and we'll begin on this sale?"

"That sounds good," Dwayne nodded.

Stephanie finally managed a genuine smile as she was relieved that nothing was going to happen between them and she decided to finally tell him her good news. "Rocky, I have some other news, I'm pregnant."

"You are?" Dwayne smiled broadly. "Congratulations! You can't be far along, I mean it doesn't show."

"That won't last much longer."

"I'm really pleased for you," Dwayne said genuinely.

Stephanie walked out of the restaurant next to Dwayne with the smile still on her face but a second later it transformed to a look of confusion when she saw Paul approaching. "Paul? Why are you here?" She asked in total confusion.

"Paul, how are you?" Dwayne greeted them as Paul approached but then they both took in the look of anger and total disgust on his face.

"I want a divorce you vile little slut," he growled at Stephanie before turning to Rocky, "If you want this piece of trash you can have it. It's probably your baby that it's carrying anyway. If she was worth it I'd kick your fucking ass, but she's not." With that he turned and stormed away.


	41. Chapter 41

Nikki had realised that although tonight had been an opportunity that could not be missed it could also cause a serious problem. If it went as planned and Stephanie slept with Dwayne then Nikki planned to call Paul and apologise for everything that had happened on Tuesday and pretend to be concerned as she did not know where Stephanie was and she was not answering her phone. It was hardly foolproof but planting the seed in Paul's head that Stephanie was not in her room where she should be was all that she could do to ease things along. She then had to hope that either that alone was the final straw or if not that Paul would do his own detective work and find out the truth. The problem was that even if the plan worked out and Paul demanded a divorce, what if Stephanie finally cracked and lost it completely? Nikki needed her not to do that because she doubted that Vince would retire if that happened and Nikki could not allow that, not after everything she had done to get to this point. She considered herself to be in a very tough spot indeed. If she revealed what she knew and got Stephanie the treatment that she needed then the same thing could also happen. So what to do?

Eventually she decided that she could not see Stephanie get any worse. She reasoned that she was not a monster, she only wanted control of WWE and a contract that guaranteed her a huge salary, she did not want to totally destroy her step-daughter for good. This left the problem of convincing Vince to retire even without Stephanie or Paul to take over and that was not going to be easy. Her work had begun on that months ago when she intervened in Vince's idea of taking himself off the road twice a week and working only from the office. The golden opportunity had ironically been presented by Paul himself when he had backed her in creating a whole new storyline on the fly and everyone had gone along with it. Now she could tell that it was really beginning to take a toll on the poor old guy. Shane had even spoken to her about it backstage a couple of times, so she had not been the only to notice it. She was confident that she would be able to pull it off when the time came, she had gotten to be very good at persuading people to do things. That calm, soothing voice she had developed was really paying off. It seemed to work especially well with Stephanie but Vince was certainly not immune to it.

Lying next to Vince in their hotel room she looked at him as he drifted near to sleep, missing the end of the TV show he had been watching. They were both startled by Vince's phone ringing. "Who the hell is that at this time?" He growled in irritation.

Nikki was quickest to pick the device up from where it lay on the bed and when she saw who was calling she thought the opportunity had just presented itself for her to stir the pot. She answered the call herself. "Hey Paul, look I'm sorry about..."

"Put Vince on Nikki, now," Paul growled angrily.

Nikki winked at Vince, "Vince can't talk right now..."

"Don't fuck me around you little bitch!" Paul raged. "Put Vince on now!"

Nikki was so shocked by the venom in his voice that she did as he ordered. Vince had heard Paul shouting without being the one on the call and as he took the phone he demanded, "Paul, why are you yelling at Nikki?"

His question was ignored. "There's a few things you need to know Vince, so shut up and listen. Your daughter is a lying, deceiving little slut and..."

"What did you fucking say?" Vince exploded.

"Shut up and listen. I caught her with Dwayne Johnson, I'm divorcing her. Yes that's right Vince, Dwayne Johnson. She's buying TNA behind your back."

Vince's face had gone bright red and Nikki did not know whether to be more concerned about whatever it was that Paul was saying or the fact that Vince looked like he might have a heart attack. "She's what?" Vince yelled.

"You heard. If you want my advice check that slut and that crazy bitch next to you into an asylum and leave them there. Oh yeah one more thing... I quit."

"What the fuck?" Vince asked incredulously. The call had been ended and Vince looked at the phone as if the device could answer for itself as he repeated himself, "What the fuck?"

"What is it Vince?" Nikki asked softly.

Vince looked at her with a stunned expression on his face. "He said that he caught Steph cheating on him with Dwayne Johnson and he's divorcing her."

"What?" Nikki feigned horror.

"I've got to call her and find out where she is," Vince said, already pulling up Stephanie's number on his phone.

Nikki did not want that to happen, she took the phone from him. "You just told me where she is Vince," she said softly. "This clearly isn't the time."

"He also said that she's buying TNA behind my back and that he quits."

Nikki made sure that she still sounded shocked. "He quit WWE?"

Vince was still trying to process what he had heard. "Yeah," he mumbled. "I don't believe any of this, why would Steph be with Dwayne? Why would she do that? And why would she buy TNA without telling me?"

"She told me about it," Nikki mumbled.

"She what?" Vince demanded. "Why didn't you say something?"

Nikki had already quickly planned an answer to that. "Vince, I was thinking of Steph. She needs this, let her take the credit for it. She's worked so hard and it's been weighing in her mind for so long. I want you to pretend that you don't know about it. She needs something good to happen for her, apparently now more than ever. Let her have this victory, cuddle bear, she deserves it and it will help her to feel better."

Vince took a deep breath and let it out, "Okay, what you say makes sense. Paul has quit though, my God that's bad for us. In fact it's a disaster, I need to talk him out of it."

"Come on," Nikki said. "He said he's intending to divorce Steph and you think that he's going to change his mind on quitting and she's not going to fire him? Face it, Paul is gone."

Vince shook his head in disbelief, "What a fucking disaster. I needed him to be there to work with Steph when she took over from me. Now what am I supposed to do, stay on?"

"No Vince," Nikki said soothingly. "I'm already worried about you, Shane is too. Work is taking a toll on you lately and I really don't want you to get sick, or worse. And this is when you have Paul and Steph to help you too. You really need to retire and take it easy, cuddle bear. I couldn't bear it if something happened to you."

Vince sighed, what Nikki said made sense again. She always seemed to know what was for the best, he was lucky to have her around with all the problems Stephanie was having and causing. "Maybe you're right," he conceded tiredly. "I must admit I don't feel great a lot of the time. How can I retire now though, I mean it's fairly obvious that if Paul divorces Steph then she will get sick again."

Nikki took a second before committing herself to the next big step. "I was thinking about that earlier actually. I was going to speak to you both about it tomorrow. Why is it that even though Steph is on her meds she's out of control so often and struggling when she isn't? Tell me about what therapy she had."

Vince filled Nikki in on what he knew and Nikki got confirmation of what she had already figured out. She shook her head sadly, "Vince that's ridiculous. You can't help someone with a problem like Steph's that quickly. I can't believe it, what a clown that guy must have been. She's probably not even on the right meds. We need to get her back into therapy yesterday."

Vince felt as though he was going to be sick. "You mean this could have all been avoided if... oh my God I've let her down. We've all let her down so badly."

Nikki wrapped her arms around him as she saw the guilt and sadness in his eyes. "We'll get her help Vince," she soothed. "It's going to take a long time for her to recover from this but at least I've figured it out now. I think you should retire and you can take care of her full time, apparently Paul isn't going to do it and she definitely needs someone to do it."

Vince was still thinking about Stephanie's failed therapy, "Paul said that doctor charged him a fortune."

"And you think that means something?" Nikki snorted. "We've got to take care of our daughter ourselves now."

Vince's head was spinning. "Everything is suddenly a total disaster. Steph's a mess and she needs to go back to therapy, it's my fault, Paul has quit and you're right I should be there to take care of her but what about the company? Everything has fallen apart at once and if I retire who the hell would run the place?"

"This isn't your fault Vince but you need to put your health and hers before the company. As for who can take charge of it, I don't know." She left a long pause before she spoke, doing so as if the idea had just popped into her head and she was unsure of it herself, "What if I did it?"


	42. Chapter 42

Vince was not convinced to say the least but he was considering Nikki's proposal. Nikki could tell both of these things as they continued to discuss the multi layered disaster that had just exploded in his face. Vince had put his entire life into WWE and he was again having a hard time agreeing to give it up, especially as he insisted that a McMahon take charge and now apparently the only option was his soon to be wife who had only worked in a corporate setting for a few months. Nikki was sure that if she continued to work on him until the time came, the day after the Royal Rumble pay per view, that she could ensure things went the way she desired.

In reality Nikki was just moments away from her dream, or scheme, being fulfilled by the one person who had been key to it. She kept telling herself that she did not want Stephanie to be hurt in any of this but if she had not been so warped by her own obsessions she would have made the obvious realisation that Stephanie was the one being hurt the most, her whole life was now destroyed with the impending loss of her husband and children. She was still holding Vince in her arms and talking to him in that soothing voice she had perfected when someone began frantically knocking on the door of their room. It was apparent who the person was when they heard Stephanie cry out, "Nikki! Dad!"

It escaped neither of them, especially Nikki that her name was the first of the two words. It was also obvious that Stephanie was crying. Nikki leapt off the bed and raced over to the door. As she opened it Stephanie almost fell into her arms, already sobbing, "He's left me. I didn't even do anything and he's left me."

Nikki kicked the door shut with her right foot and awkwardly led Stephanie, who would not release her desperate grasp onto Nikki, over to the bed. Vince looked on in horror at the pitiful state his heartbroken daughter was in as tears poured down her cheeks. As Nikki managed to get Stephanie to sit on the bed she gestured for Vince to comfort her. Previously she had insisted that this role be hers alone but now it was time for the opposite, she needed Stephanie to be Vince's responsibility and the company needed to be hers.

Vince had never been the tender, caring type as it just was not in his nature. Of course he had always been a good dad to his children but at times like this he would differ to Linda or more recently to Nikki but what Nikki had said made so much sense right now. His job was no longer to run a company, his daughter was a barely functioning wreck and he could not stand it any more. Stephanie only reinforced this as he took her in his arms by whimpering, "I've lost Paul and he's going to take the girls from me. I don't want to live any more. I just want to die. I want to be with mom."

Vince held Stephanie tightly as he looked at Nikki in horror. Nikki's eyes conveyed the message, "This is what I was just telling you." Vince said to Stephanie, "I'm sorry Steph, I'm so sorry. I've let you down but not any more. We've realised why you are still sick, really sick, and we're going to get you back into therapy. I'll talk..."

"No therapy," Stephanie sobbed. "I can't do it... want to die."

Vince felt as though he was about to cry himself but he knew that he could not do it, not now. "You don't mean that," he said gently. "I'm going to retire and I'm going to come to therapy with you as. I'll be there to help you twenty four seven for as long as you need it. You're my baby girl Steph and I'm going to take care of you now."

Nikki felt her heart rate quicken as she heard that but she continued to look at Stephanie in horror, the really did need to get her help yesterday. Stephanie talking about suicide was definitely not supposed to happen. "I only carried on for Paul and the girls, now they're gone," Stephanie continued sobbing.

Both Vince and Nikki spent a long time attempting to get Stephanie to stop crying so that they could get her story from her and eventually she could not physically cry any more and as she lay curled up in Vince's arms. "We know what happened with you and Dwayne and I know about TNA but tell us what happened with Paul?" Vince asked.

Over the next few minutes Stephanie told her story of the meal, and then its conclusion, "Nothing happened with Rocky. He kissed me but only for a second and I backed away and he apologised. The next thing I know Paul appeared and called me a slut and a piece of trash and said that he wanted a divorce. I don't understand, I mean he wasn't even in the restaurant. He came from somewhere else so he couldn't have even seen what happened, which was nothing anyway. I was too stunned to react for a few seconds and by the time I did Paul had already stormed out of the hotel and he was about to get in a cab. I shouted at him to wait and asked what was going on and he blew up at me, yelling all kinds of abuse at me in the street. He called me a slut, a bitch, scum, psycho and a bunch of other horrible things and he told me that he wouldn't give me the satisfaction of firing him as he quit. He told me to stick my precious company up my ass and forget about seeing him or the girls again. He said not to bother going back home as by the time I got there he would have had the locks changed. He said he's divorcing me and taking everything from me apart from my precious company as that's all I give a fuck about anyway."

This began more crying which took another few minutes to subside before Stephanie could continue, "Paul got in his cab and left and I couldn't do anything. My mind was gone again, I guess it was like when mom died apart from that I didn't sit on the floor. I just stood there and stared at nothing but Rocky came out of the hotel and he managed to get me in a cab and we drove here. I can't remember anything he said, I was only thinking two things and I didn't know which I wanted most, Nikki to hold me or to kill myself. I found myself back here and running up the stairs. I don't know why I didn't use the elevator... anyway I ran up here and..." Her voice trailed off.

"Do you want Nikki to hold you now?" Vince asked as soothingly as he could.

"No," Stephanie mumbled.

Vince guessed that this meant his comfort was adequate. "Okay, we're going to get you help tomorrow sweetheart and I'm going to talk to Paul. I can't promise that everything will be okay but I doubt that he's going to keep the girls away from you. That will hurt them as much as it hurts you and Paul isn't like that. You can't talk about hurting yourself, the girls love you, Shane and Marissa and the boys love you, I love you and Nikki loves you, right Nikki?"

Nikki took Stephanie's hand as she continued to lie in Vince's arms, "That's right Steph. You can sleep in here tonight with your dad and I'll take your room. I know you don't want to be alone."

"No, not alone," Stephanie mumbled.

Vince and Nikki both spent a long time continuing to comfort Stephanie until after another mention of therapy which Stephanie responded to with, "I'm supposed to take over the company."

Nikki somehow managed no visible reaction despite the huge rush that hit her as she heard Vince say, "Until you're better Nikki is going to have to do it."

Some time later Nikki had left to go sleep in Stephanie's room, giving Stephanie's dependency on Vince rather than herself time to grow. She lay there unable to even feel tired due to the realisation that everything she had done had actually worked. The WWE was going to be hers in less than two weeks.

At least that was what she thought. Vince had already made his own decision, his daughter needed him now, not in two weeks. He was going to retire with immediate effect tomorrow, citing health reasons relating to both himself and Stephanie and the need to care for his seriously ill daughter. The board would be livid at his decision coming on the same day that they found out that Paul had quit and Stephanie would be absent indefinitely but Vince did not care. Stephanie was more important than the company and the company could continue with Nikki in charge. Vince would soften the blow with the news that Stephanie had agreed in principle to buy TNA from Dwayne Johnson. Despite what he thought of Dwayne and the fact that Stephanie had tried to do this behind his back he knew that the board would view this as fantastic news. Also the board would need to either promote from within or hire new people to fill Paul's vacancy and temporarily to cover the absence of a CEO. It was going to be a long and tough meeting but all that mattered was to get Stephanie help.

Nikki lay awake in Stephanie's room and she saw her phone light up. It was on silent mode but she knew that as the screen was not flashing that this was not a call. She picked up the phone and saw a text from Vince: _Steph is asleep now thank god. This is heartbreaking. Will she really recover from this? I'm so sorry to have to put you in charge of the company but there's no other option that keeps a McMahon in charge. I feel guilty to put you under so much pressure sweetheart_.

Nikki smiled and sent back: _Don't worry about me cuddle bear I can handle it. Your job is to worry about Steph. With your support and mine she can come through this. We need to make sure she gets the right therapy that she needs and this time it needs to be done thoroughly, we're talking months not weeks. I love you both so much xxx_

Nikki set her phone back down on the night stand and lay back down with the smile still on her face.


	43. Chapter 43

Nikki sat in her office and waited. And waited, and waited. It was so frustrating. She should have been summoned to the boardroom long before now to be told that she was going to be given the position of Acting Chairwoman so why was it not happening? Unless something went wrong at this final stage this was better than she could have hoped for. Vince had told her that he was retiring with immediate effect. It was incredible, from Monday she would be in charge!

The morning and the flight home had been chaotic. Stephanie was obviously still a total mess and she had still not been able to go any reasonable period of time without crying. Nikki genuinely felt bad, the poor woman was totally destroyed. It really had not been what she had intended but it was too late to change it now, Stephanie would get help and things would be okay, hopefully, maybe.

Nikki and Vince had also had the grim task of filling Shane in on everything that had happened. He had agreed to stay at home with Stephanie when they had flown back and Vince was going to immediately take Stephanie to see her new doctor when he got out of this board meeting.

Nikki still had the number of a doctor from back home in Arizona from years before and had called and asked for a recommendation for a doctor to help with Stephanie. She had been given a name and told that this doctor was one of the best rising stars in the field and was much sought after. Her office was not local but it was not too far away to be impractical so Vince had made a call and managed to arrange a meeting with the doctor for the following Monday morning even at such short notice. Nikki wondered how much extra that little accommodation was going to cost but that did not really matter to someone like Vince McMahon.

No one had been able to contact Paul, everyone apart from Stephanie had tried but all of theirs calls had been ignored. Nikki was really hoping that Paul did not intend to refuse to let Stephanie see the girls. Even if he did go through with the divorce as it appeared that he would there was no reason to prevent the girls from having contact with their mom.

Vince had also suggested postponing the wedding which he had only booked the afternoon of the day before at Nikki's almost insistence. She knew that things might blow up Thursday night and she had wanted it done before then. The wedding was set for just eight days from now on a Saturday afternoon but Nikki had talked him out of postponing it by saying that it would be a happy day and that was obviously what everyone needed right now, especially Stephanie. She had said that the honeymoon would obviously have to wait but what did a vacation matter at this point? She had told Brie and Daniel backstage at Smackdown and they were overjoyed for her. Vince had told Shane which only left Nikki to contact her parents.

Nikki shook her head at the memory of Stephanie's face as the car containing her and Shane had departed from the airport. She had never seen anyone look so devastated and heartbroken before in her life. Her guilt instantly left her mind as there was a knock on her office door. "Come in," she said pleasantly.

Vince's secretary opened the door and stuck her head into the office, "Mr. McMahon requests your presence in the boardroom."

Nikki noticed with irritation that there was a hint within the tone that the wrinkled old bitch had used that the idea of Nikki having business in the boardroom appalled her. Nikki thought, "You don't even know it but it's very likely that you are working your last day here you shrivelled up old witch. Your ass is fired Monday." Nikki had already even decided who the replacement would be but she managed to say, "Thank you," pleasantly.

She stood and put on her back suit jacket and then walked out of her office, casting a look of disgust at the back of the departing secretary and then headed in the opposite direction towards the boardroom. She had only been in there once and then it had only ended up being for a chat with Stephanie. Now she was about to walk into her first board meeting. The first of many she was sure. She took a deep breath and let it out again before she walked into the boardroom. It was certainly not an act as she smiled nervously at the men assembled in the room along either side of the long table. "Good afternoon," she greeted them nervously.

Nikki took in that Vince sat in his position at the top end of the table and the first seat on his right hand side was empty as everyone repeated her greeting without a large amount of enthusiasm. She assumed that the vacant seat was usually Stephanie's but now Vince gestured for Nikki to occupy it, "Have a seat Nikki."

After walking the length of the table, feeling all eyes on her as she did so she sat down and waited to hear what had been decided. Vince did not take long to inform her, "I have informed everyone of Stephanie's health issues, and my own, and my decision to retire with immediate effect. I've also explained that Paul has left us and that he's unlikely to return. I have made everyone aware of my insistence that a member of the McMahon family remains in charge and that currently the only option is you. You have my backing and Stephanie's backing and therefore the backing of everyone in this room."

Nikki was not overly familiar with corporate discussion but she was sharp enough to notice the way that Vince had phrased that. Apparently what he meant was that she had got the job because Vince and Stephanie could insist on it, if it came to that, and nobody wanted it to come to that as things could get really ugly. "Thank you," she said quietly, trying to hide her nerves. "Thank you everyone. I'll give you my best, that's all I can do."

"We've discussed your contract," Vince continued. "Obviously you will be entitled to a significant increase on your current salary."

Nikki had planned what to say at this point; another carefully crafted lie. "I don't care about the money. I'm stepping up for the company, and for you and Steph."

Vince smiled kindly as did several other board members which pleased Nikki greatly. "I know that's how you feel but even so you will get a salary increase. You will make eight hundred thousand dollars per year for your role as Acting Chairwoman plus one hundred fifty thousand as on screen talent. This will be reviewed again upon Stephanie's return uh... whenever that is and will depend on what position she puts you in. Everything clear?"

Nikki was aware that this was a lot less than what Stephanie made as CEO and would definitely be a hell of a lot less that what she would make as President but she could hardly argue the point and it still over a million dollar salary. She tried to strike a balance between sounding awed by the amount of money but no sounding like someone who should not be doing this job. "Yes that's all clear. Thank you everyone. When do I start?"

"Monday," Vince said. "The search will begin this afternoon both internally and externally for people to replace Paul and temporarily Stephanie and there will be a further board meeting next week to discuss the candidates."

The meeting went on for more than another hour as Nikki was brought up to speed on who everyone was who sat on the board and numerous other things that she needed to know in order to do her new job. She was instructed to ask questions as often as she needed to and Vince said that he would always be only a phone call away if she struggled with anything. Eventually the meeting was over and everyone shook hands with Nikki and then exchanged handshakes and hugs with Vince as they wished him well for his retirement and passed on best wishes for Stephanie before making their exits, leaving Vince and Nikki alone in the boardroom. As the door closed Vince relaxed and Nikki could immediately see that he had been putting a front on how tired and stressed he really was. Nikki imagined that he had not slept the previous night. He managed a smile as he looked at her, "Congratulations sweetheart, you'll be great, I know you will. Stephanie cannot speak highly enough of your talent for this kind of work. It's a massive step up I know, but you will be fine."

Nikki made sure her smile was only small as she lied, "Thank you Vince but don't congratulate me. I didn't want this, not this way. I'd give it up tomorrow if it meant Steph was well enough to return."

"She will come through this won't she?" Vince asked sadly.

Nikki nodded, "She's a strong woman. Now that we are getting her the help she needs she will recover. I don't know how long it will take but she will do it."

Vince stood to leave and Nikki followed his example as he said, "I'm worried about the baby too. She's under so much stress, it can't be good." They walked side by side as they walked towards the door.

"I know," Nikki agreed. "It's a real mess but things can't get any worse for her from here. We just need to get in contact with Paul and make sure she gets access to the girls."

As they reached the door Vince opened it and stood aside for Nikki to exit but she smiled, "No, after you, cuddle bear."

Vince walked out and managed a laugh, "Don't call me that in public."

Before she walked out of the door Nikki looked back with a smile and took in every detail of the boardroom. Her boardroom. Everything was working out perfectly and she thought with great satisfaction, "You're just too clever for people Nikki."

* * *

Sadly for Nikki she was not quite as clever as she thought and she had failed to consider something. Paul had quit WWE and told Stephanie that he wanted a divorce but that did not mean that he had gone away. He sat at home that night after he had put the girls to bed and he was still raging. He kept thinking about everything that had gone on in the time since Linda had died as he attempted to piece together everything that had gone wrong in his marriage and he had made a realisation. There had been a period where everything had returned to normal. It had only been for a few weeks but he could definitely remember it. It was after Stephanie had been through her therapy and cleared the air with him and the rest of the family. For a few weeks Stephanie had been fine and she had been trying to persuade Vince to give her more responsibility in the company.

She had been given the extra responsibility and she had been delighted about it but what had happened at the same meeting? Vince had revealed that he was in a relationship with Nikki Bella. He could quite clearly remember Stephanie's reaction, a total meltdown. Things had never returned to normal from that point on. Nikki had wormed her way into Stephanie's life and Stephanie had become dependant on her. He cursed himself for allowing it to happen, he felt certain that if he had kept Stephanie away from Nikki things would be very different right now. He thought about all of the times Nikki had supposedly helped Stephanie when she was suffering, why had Nikki always insisted on being alone? What had she really been saying to Stephanie? She had given herself away the day that Stephanie walked out on him, she had made up complete bullshit and filled Stephanie's head with it just to get what she wanted which was apparently Stephanie and him to be separated. But why would she want that?

No matter how hard the thought about it he could not figure that part out. He had never done anything to hurt Stephanie and until that day he had never had a serious issue with Nikki on anything either, so what was it all about? There was another thing that he did not understand; there had been an afternoon in the office when Stephanie had shut down for a reason that had never been revealed to him. She had been fine earlier that day and again that night but what had happened that afternoon? Paul sat and thought about it and he remembered that Stephanie had walked out of her office after spending a few minutes in there with Nikki and she had called Nikki mom. What the fuck was that about? What had Nikki done to his wife? Was Stephanie still sick not in spite of Nikki's 'help' but because of it? It was definitely a possibility. A truly sickening one, but a possibility nonetheless.

He decided to sleep on it and see if anything else came to mind. He wanted answers and if he could not figure them out for himself there was only one person who could tell him. He would have to speak to Stephanie. "One thing is for sure," he said aloud, "I'm going to figure out what the fuck you've done Nikki, and what you're still doing. I know you're up to something you scheming little bitch and you're not ruining my life with it. Not a fucking chance."


	44. Chapter 44

A/N: For this chapter we are going back to how we started the first story of the series, with Stephanie speaking in her therapy session.

* * *

_All of that Thursday night and the following Friday morning and on the flight home I could not stop crying. I was totally heartbroken. My dad and my brother and Nikki kept trying to comfort me but nothing seemed to help. Usually Nikki would help even if no one else could. I thought that she had been so good to me since she had been with my dad but suddenly she seemed to be distancing herself a little and instead expecting my dad to care for me. At the time it hurt but now I know exactly what she was doing and that I wouldn't be here now if it wasn't for Nikki, in a negative sense of course._

_We landed in New York before lunch and they sent me home in a car with my brother. Shane kept talking to me and I was mumbling responses but I wasn't even listening to him. I think I was shutting down again. That happens when things get too much for me. I just want to be with my mom when things get too hard. It makes no sense when I say it like that but I feel safe when I think about being with her and it takes away the pain and the stress._

_We got home and Shane got me settled on the couch and put the TV on and sat next to me and I'm not sure how long we had been there for but I started crying again. Shane was pleading with me to stop but even if I had tried to I couldn't have done it. It was obvious that he had no clue what to say but he tried his best. I really love my brother so much, I would be dead now if it wasn't for him._

_I had lost my husband, my girls, my home and I wasn't going to be allowed to take over my company. Every aspect of my life had been destroyed at the same time and I just wanted to die. I knew that I was pregnant and if I killed myself obviously the baby would die too but I figured that I was a useless mother and Paul did not even believe me that the baby was his. We would both be better off dead._

_Suddenly I had decided that I was going to do it. I couldn't go on any more and I wasn't going to. I was going to end my suffering for good. I had stopped crying again and I told Shane that I was going to the bathroom._

_I got up and walked upstairs. I guess that is what alerted Shane that something was off. There is a downstairs bathroom in dad's house and I should obviously have used that one and he must have picked up on that. For the purpose that I intended I needed to use the one upstairs because that was where all of the medicine in the house was kept. I intended to take every pill I could find, I figured that there would surely have been no way of saving me from that._

_I walked into the bathroom and I should have locked the door but obviously I wasn't thinking clearly at all. I didn't even close the door. I didn't even know that Shane had followed my up the stairs and he must have been watching me from the other end of the hallway. He obviously saw me taking pills out of the cabinet because suddenly he was holding me from behind and dragging me out of the bathroom._

_"What are you doing Stephanie?" He was asking, and I could tell that he was heartbroken. "Don't even think about doing that. I'm not going to let you hurt yourself."_

_I was trying to fight him off and I was pleading, "Just let me die. I want to die. I have no reason to live."_

_Shane dragged me into dad and Nikki's bedroom and made me sit on the bed. What I was saying had started him crying by this point and he was trying to tell me that I have three girls and another baby who need me and the rest of my family love me and things like that but again I wasn't listening. I had totally given up on myself and my life and I just lay back on the bed and cried, willing myself to have a heart attack, anything just to die and get away from the suffering._

_I don't know how long we were there for but Shane stayed with me holding me and comforting me the whole time and eventually dad and Nikki came home. Shane told them what happened and they were both horrified. I think Nikki really was, I don't know what her deal was. She acted like she loved me but at the same time she could have prevented my suffering months before just by telling me that I needed more help. We're convinced now that she knew all along how inadequate my first therapy was and that I was on the wrong meds. Anyway, they all sat around me trying to help but all I wanted was my girls and Paul and if I couldn't have them I wanted to die._

_I didn't even know what Paul was doing in that hotel that night when I had dinner with Dwayne or why he suddenly wanted a divorce. I didn't even do anything wrong. Dwayne kissed me and I told him that I couldn't do that to Paul. Paul could not have even seen that happen anyway because he wasn't in the restaurant. I had no idea why any of this was happening to me._

_Anyway they made sure that someone was with me at all times obviously in case I tried to do something to myself. Apparently they were even taking turns to wait outside my room that night as I slept. Yes, somehow I actually managed to sleep. I know they were keeping watch because I got up to use the bathroom and dad was sitting in the hallway demanding to know what I was doing. He made me go to the bathroom with the door open too so that he would see if I went near the pills again._

_I felt no better the next day, we couldn't get an appointment with you until Monday and they just didn't know how to help me. They made sure that they didn't let me out of their sight all day. At least one of them was with me all of the time. I was waiting for them to tie me to a chair or something, that was how bad it was. I know now that they were right but then I hated it. I wanted to kill myself and I couldn't, I was basically being forced to live against my will._

_I still kept crying all the time and no one knew what to do to help me. In truth there was nothing they could have done. Nothing that anyone said made me feel better. That night Nikki stayed in my room. I wonder if they talked and said that even if they kept watch outside of my room that I might hang myself or something? If I had thought about it on the Friday night I might have tried it._

_Sunday was yet more of the same until just before lunch. I couldn't believe it when my phone rang and I saw that it was Paul who was calling. Nikki wanted to answer for me and tell him to go to hell but thankfully I was strong enough to tell her to leave me alone. If I had let her answer and prevent what happened as a result of that call then again I think I would be dead now as sooner or later the chance to kill myself would have presented itself._

_I could tell that Nikki wasn't happy about it but she left the room and so did my dad and I could talk privately as I answered the call, "Paul?"_

_"You can come over to see the girls. We need to talk." I couldn't really figure out his tone but I wanted to see him and the girls so badly. But w__hat was I supposed to do? It was the thing that I wanted most in the world but I knew that dad and Nikki would not let me drive over there and they probably wouldn't drive me there and leave me there either. They clearly had no intention of letting me harm myself somehow and therefore wouldn't let me go anywhere or do anything. I decided that I had to be honest with Paul. "I'd love that more than anything but dad and Nikki won't let me out of the house. I..."_

_"What do you mean they won't let you?" Paul cut me off._

_I didn't want to tell him but I had to. "I tried to kill myself Friday night. I tried to take pills..."_

_Paul talked over me again and he sounded appalled, "Oh Jesus Steph. Why the hell did you kiss Dwayne if this upsets you so much? What did you think would happen? Did you really think you could just cheat on me and not get found out?"_

_"I didn't kiss him baby, I swear." I was desperate for him to believe me. "He kissed me and I pushed him away I swear. I swear I wasn't going to do anything Paul please believe me."_

_"I'll drive over and we can talk." I could tell that he was a lot less than convinced but he was coming over and that was what mattered._

_"Please bring the girls," I begged him but he refused me._

_"No, I'm going to have someone sit with them. I'll be over later, when I can."_

_I guessed that he had struggled to find someone to sit for the girls because it took more than two hours for him to show up even though it was only about a fifteen minute drive. Nikki kept on talking to me during that time and she was telling me it was a bad idea to talk to Paul but I wasn't listening to her. I don't know if I had already figured out that something was going on with her but luckily I didn't listen anyway._

_Eventually Paul showed up and dad showed him in to the living and told me to call him if I needed him. As Nikki left the room I saw the look that she and Paul gave each other. Paul plainly hated Nikki and I couldn't read her look. It definitely contained hatred by also something else, maybe she knew that she was in deep shit already? That was the last time I saw Nikki, I don't think I'll ever forget that look on her face. I can picture it now as clearly as if she was standing next to you right now. Such hatred._

_I was delighted to see Paul, being away from him had made me realise how much he meant to me. I had lost sight of that somehow due to my illness. Due to my illness and to Nikki, she was controlling, totally controlling me. I know that's no excuse for how I treated my husband but it's true. __Paul sat next to me and I smiled at him."Hi." I was not prepared for what he wanted to talk about, not even close to prepared. I didn't know what I was in for or how hard the next twenty four hours would be._


	45. Chapter 45

_"Steph, you're going to tell me what the hell Nikki is doing and what she's done in the past. If you don't there's no way we can fix this marriage because you're never going to get better." That's what Paul said to start the conversation off. I think if he had run me down with a bus it wouldn't have hit me so hard._

_I was instantly panicked as all I really focussed on was that he asked what Nikki had done in the past and I assumed that he meant having John killed. Nikki had told me so many times that it was me and her, like it was me and her against everyone else in the world or something and she had me totally under control like I said before. I couldn't tell Paul what I knew and rat Nikki out. All I could think about was what she had told me, she was my step-mom now and if anyone found out I would lose her. I stalled for time and asked him what he was talking about._

_I could see the frustration on his face and in his eyes. "That's really how this is going to go? Fine, let's start with a specific question. That afternoon when you had a uh... what would you call it? An episode maybe? That afternoon in your office, you know when I mean. Tell me exactly what caused it and what happened. Tell me all of it and tell me now, or I'm out of here."_

_I was confused, terrified in fact. What was I supposed to do? I just sat there as I couldn't make a decision on whether to say anything or not. Paul made the decision for me by standing up and making to leave. "Oh fuck it, I made an effort and you're just going to blank me? Forget it," he said as he walked across the room towards the door. If he walked out of that door we were done, I knew that. I was shaking and he was nearly at the door when I blurted out, "Okay."_

_"Okay what?" He demanded, but he had stopped and turned around to look at me again._

_I was already crying, it was as if I was actually fighting Nikki. She wasn't even in the room but I was fighting her. I wanted to tell Paul but all of her poisonous words were stuck in my head and I couldn't get them out. I was scared, confused, basically every horrible emotion you can imagine but I was fighting. I was fighting for my husband and for my girls. I had been prepared to kill myself when I thought that I had lost them and here was a chance to get them back. All I had to do was talk._

_Paul must have realised that he had been wrong in his reaction a moment before from my tears and from my face. He must have realised that I wasn't blanking him, that I was actually struggling to tell him. He had tried so hard throughout my illness but he was still not really accustomed to how to help me, he was awkward and obviously did not know what to say but he walked back over to me and sat back down. "Steph, it's only me and you here. Nikki isn't here, your dad isn't here. You're uh... in a safe place. Tell me what happened, please?"_

_"Tell me you won't leave me?" I begged him._

_He looked me in the eye and he looked kind of sad. "I can't promise you that, not after everything that's happened. I promise you that we'll try to work on it, that's all I can do, but only if you tell me everything about Nikki."_

_I remember that I closed my eyes and I was still shaking as I was now willing myself to tell him but my mouth wouldn't work or something. I just wouldn't talk. What finally did it was that he held me and said, "You're safe Steph. I'm here, just talk to me."_

_It was then that I blurted it all out. I can't imagine what he was feeling as he listened, I mean obviously rage and lots more but he must have known from my previous therapy that when I was talking like this it was very bad to interrupt and despite everything he must have felt he just sat and held me without saying a thing as I told him exactly what happened that afternoon in my office. He might not have even been able to understand all of it as I cried the whole time as I told him and I also made realisations of my own in the process._

_"I had a meeting with some women from a charity. After we finished I got Lucy to take a picture of us for the website and when the women left I took my phone back from Lucy and that was when it happened. I have no idea why it happened then, nothing that I'm aware of triggered it, it just happened. I pieced together the fact that Nikki was the one who had John killed."_

_"It was Nikki who suggested that I should meet with John when he got out of jail. It was Nikki who went to visit John in jail to arrange the meeting and after she'd spoken to him she said that John was afraid that someone would shoot him. She made sure that she__ went with me to the meeting with John and sat there listening when he said that he was leaving his apartment early the next morning and he probably wasn't coming back. On the way home she sat there and__ said nothing for the whole journey after I said that I was still afraid of John, afraid for myself and for the girls. If you remember she even made up some reason for her and Vince to come over the next day. She knew that the cops would automatically come for me first and she wanted to be there when they did, probably to hear for herself what they knew, or thought they knew. Then she sat holding me, defending me from your accusations and from dad's accusations, when all along it was her."_

_"I had figured all of that out and I thought I was going to collapse. Lucy could tell that something was wrong but I managed to lie, I don't remember what I said but I made it back into my office and shut the door but then I shut down. I was so horrified that Nikki would do that and it made me shut down again, at that point Nikki was the person that I loved the most and I was suddenly terrified of her and I felt destroyed by it."_

_"I don't know how long I was there for but you came and you were talking through the door to ask me if I was okay but as with the other times I couldn't say anything. I just sat there and eventually you pushed the door open and got in and you were saying something like 'Don't do this again'. I fought so hard and I tried to tell you what I knew and I managed to say 'Nikki'. Naturally you assumed that I meant that I needed Nikki's help but I wanted anything but that. I was terrified of Nikki and I didn't want her near me. I wanted to tell you what she had done but suddenly she was there."_

_"As usual she quickly convinced you to leave her alone with me and even though I was desperate for you to stay and to get her away from me I couldn't say anything. Nikki sat down next to me and she held me and I've never been so scared. She was a murderer, well not a murderer but whatever it's called for what she did and she had hold of me. I guess out of sheer panic I managed to say 'It was you'. She clearly did not know what I had figured out and she said 'What was me sweetheart?' and continued to hold me."_

_"I was willing myself to get away from her and to get you back into the office and to tell you and I fought as hard as I could and I managed to say 'It was you. You killed John'. If she hadn't done what she did next I really think everything would be different now. Before I knew what was happening she had covered my mouth with her hand. If it was possible I would have been even more terrified than I was before. I thought for a moment that she was trying to suffocate me or something as it was hard to breathe. She must have been trying to decide what to do as we just sat like that for a minute or something. I was still unable to make myself fight her or even move but I managed to make myself call out to you. I called your name for help and it took everything I had left to do it but of course it didn't even work because she was covering my mouth so tightly and you didn't hear me."_

_"If only you had been able to hear me at that moment we wouldn't be here now because you would have stormed in and I would have told you, at least I think I would. But instead Nikki started talking in that voice she has, that soft soothing voice that just gets in my head and makes me do what she says. It calms me and for some reason I just do what she says. She firstly convinced me to nod my head to agree not to make any noise if she took her hand off my mouth. I had to agree as I could barely breathe."_

_"She took her hand off my mouth and even if I had intended to I was too scared to call out again as I didn't know what she would do if I did. It was then that she really went to work on me and she's been controlling me because of what she said in that office ever since. She started by asking me to keep this between us as if I didn't she would go to jail and me and dad would both lose her. I didn't respond as Nikki going to jail was what I wanted but then she got me. She said 'You've already lost your mom once and you don't want that to happen again do you baby?'. From that moment until now I think my head was gone, at least in terms of anything regarding Nikki."_

_"She had instantly convinced me that she was my step-mom now and losing her would be the worst thing in the world, as bad as losing mom and what would I do without Nikki? I needed a mom and Nikki was my mom. I couldn't lose a mom again, not twice. I remembered all of the pain it caused the first time. I came out of the office and called her mom. It's what she's been doing and telling me over and over ever since. Every time something happens she starts telling me 'It's me and you Steph' and I can't get away from it. She's made me totally dependant on her and losing her was the most scary thing I could imagine in the world. Until I actually lost you and the girls."_

_It was then that I finally realised for myself how seriously ill Nikki had made me and I begged Paul, "Oh God, get me away from her Paul. Please get me away from her, get her out of my life and out of my head." Then I pleaded even more desperately, "Help me."_


	46. Chapter 46

_Paul must have wanted to storm out of the room and find Nikki upstairs or in the kitchen, wherever she was and break her neck or something but he also must have known that I needed help more than he needed to do that because instead of going after Nikki he said, "I'll get you out of here, I'll get you home. Let's go right now but I need you to be strong and act like everything is normal. If your dad or more importantly Nikki see me carrying you out of here or something she's going to suspect what you've just told me. Can you do that?"_

_I think that he suspected that I was going to shut down again but if that was what he thought he was totally wrong. I felt like a huge weight was lifting from me already and all I had to do to finish the job was walk out of that house. I could do that for sure. I stood up and tried to look as determined as I could. "Yes. Let's go home." I don't know what he was thinking as he looked at me and I couldn't read his expression. Maybe he had realised that I was still in there somewhere and I was trying to get out._

_He stood and kissed me softly and I think that was the best thing that had happened to me since mom died. There was light at the end of the tunnel at last as long as Paul was there for me. He took my hand and led me towards the door but suddenly I was scared again because I imagined Nikki being outside the door or waiting in the hallway or something. All I wanted was to get out of there without seeing her and luckily that was exactly what happened. I don't know where she was but when Paul opened the living room door and we walked out there was no sign of her. Dad came out of the kitchen and asked if everything was okay and Paul told him, "We're going home so that Steph can see the girls."_

_Dad must have decided not to say anything else and leave us to it as he obviously liked what he heard and saw Paul holding my hand. Every step I took towards the front door seemed to go in slow motion and I expected Nikki to materialise from somewhere and stop me from leaving but I made it. I walked through the front door and I felt free. I was away from Nikki and I was never going to go back near her again. I knew that for sure. I managed not to cry until Paul drove us away but then I was sobbing, only this time it was with relief. My ordeal finally felt like it was over. It wasn't anything close to over, it's still not over now but then it felt like it was._

_Paul kept telling me to stop crying and that I couldn't walk in the house in this state and upset the girls. I managed to sort myself out and explain to him the reason that I was crying which seemed to cheer him a bit. We got home and he used some tissues to help me clean up my face before we got out of the car. It was while he was doing that that he took me by surprise. "Steph, I've hired a nanny. I've been thinking that we needed one for some time and I've been asking around. If we're going to try to get you well and fix things between us then this is something we need. I'm going to be at work and you're going to be going to therapy probably most week days. She came over yesterday and I really liked her so I called her earlier and asked if she could start today. That's why I took a while to come over, I had to wait for her to get here."_

_If it had been twenty four hours earlier or even two hours earlier I'm sure I would have exploded at him for suggesting that we needed a nanny but now I was fine with it. If we needed a nanny to help take care of the girls while I got well I was fine with it. I knew I was going to need to come here for therapy so I just nodded and accepted it. I didn't really process that he said that he would be at work for some reason and Paul had just told me, "Her name is Anna."_

_I had sorted myself out and I was ready to go in the house. We got out of the car and I followed Paul to the front door. I noticed as he unlocked it that he had done what he said he was going to do, the lock had been changed. __We walked in and I was delighted to be back in my own home and I was only seconds away from seeing my girls. I followed Paul into the living room and he introduced me and Anna to each other. I had been expecting someone older than me and again if had been any other time I would have exploded at Paul but I managed to smile at her. I saw that she looked to be thirty at most and she was very pretty. I took in her long legs and blonde hair but I didn't even care as the girls had all stopped the game they were playing with her and they ran over to me._

_They piled onto me all shouting mommy and demanding hugs at the same time and I burst into tears again as I wrapped them all up in my arms. I know any mother would say this but my girls are the sweetest, most adorable kids in the world. I had thought that I would never get to hold them like this again and see the smiles on their faces. I knew that Paul was right that I was very ill and wouldn't be able to handle looking after them as their babbling quickly started to confuse me and make my head hurt and I knew that I needed help fast. The girls had never caused me to feel like that before but all kinds of strange things were going on in my head at that point and I didn't understand any of it._

_Paul must have seen that I was struggling as he told the girls that mommy was very tired and needed to go upstairs to rest. They obviously didn't want to be separated from me so soon after us being apart for a few days and I didn't want to be apart from them either but in another way I needed to be. I can't imagine what Anna's first impression of me must have been but she managed to get the girls attention back to the game they had been playing as Paul and I left the room again and he led me upstairs. I had managed to stop crying again. I don't know how it's possible for someone to cry so much in a twenty four hour period but I guess when you are as ill as I was..._

_We got upstairs and we both sat on our bed and Paul said, "Steph we've got to go to the cops tomorrow and tell them about Nikki, about what she did. That bitch is obviously crazy, I don't know what problem she has but she's obviously mentally ill."_

_I knew that he was right but I said, "Shouldn't we get her help? I mean she loves dad and..."_

_Paul cut me off, "She doesn't love your dad and she doesn't love you. Come on you must realise that now. Let me guess, she wanted to take over my job or something?"_

_I shook my head, "No. Dad decided to retire to help me and Nikki is taking over the company tomorrow."_

_Paul was obviously stunned, "Fucking hell. That bitch played us all perfectly didn't she? Well she's got a surprise coming tomorrow because we're going to the cops and they're going to put her away for what happened with John. Then she will finally be out of your life and out of your head."_

_I'm sure that he would have been right if things worked out like that on the Monday, but they didn't._


	47. Chapter 47

"Goodbye, cuddle bear, I'll miss you today," Nikki said as she kissed Vince and then walked out of the front door of their house. She did not look back which meant that she did not see the proud smile on his face as he closed the door. All that she was focussed on was that today was the day, she was Chairwoman of WWE starting now. All of the power and money that she had worked so hard for was now hers. It was amazing, s_he_ was amazing. As she drove towards the office she could not have removed the little smile from her face if she had tried, which she did not. There was only one thing that troubled her which was wondering why Stephanie had not returned home last night. Paul had showed up and taken her to see the kids and she had not returned. What the hell was it with that guy? Could he not just get the message and get out of their lives for good? It was not as if Stephanie needed him any more, Vince would take care of her now.

Dismissing Paul and Stephanie from her mind as she parked in Vince's old spot in the parking lot. This was the first satisfying thing of many to come today, she was sure of that. There were much more important things to think about than Paul and Stephanie that was for sure, she had a company to run. She checked her hair in the mirror and then got out of her Mercedes and straightened her jacket after closing the door. She was wearing the most expensive dark grey suit that she owned and her favourite white blouse. She checked her watch and she thought that with this outfit and that watch and her engagement ring she certainly looked like a Chairwoman should. It would have been better if she was Mrs. McMahon already but that was only five days away.

She took a deep breath, savouring the fresh air as she thought that this world really was beautiful. All you had to do was work hard and you could get anything that you wanted. She forced the smile to leave her face. Stephanie had been right all of those months ago; she was a boss to these people not a friend and that was how they were going to be treated. Some people were in for a surprise today, firstly that haggard old bitch who thought she still had a job as a secretary. Wrong. That was the first order of business today. Nikki was glad that she'd had the idea of talking Vince into making Stephanie work with her, she had learned a lot.

Wasting no further time on her thoughts she pressed the button on her car key to lock it and strode confidently into the lobby of WWE headquarters, purposely ignoring the receptionist as she did so. There was no particular need to interact with people that low on the food chain any more. As she approached the elevator she suddenly worried that maybe no one would know that she was the boss now but then she realised that this was stupid, a memo would obviously have been sent to everyone to inform them. She had to follow two other meaningless suited male employees into the elevator and one of them said, "Good morning Miss Bella." Nikki gave a slight nod as she pressed the button for the top floor, enough to register acknowledgement but definitely not enough to convey any interest in the person who had spoken.

The two men exited on the second floor and left Nikki alone to complete the ascendancy to the top floor alone. She remembered the first time she had been up here and how nervous she had been. She remembered how happy she had been when Stephanie had given her own office to work in. That had been a real sign that her idea could actually work out as she had planned it. Now only a few months later here she was, in charge of the whole place. She congratulated herself on her brilliance as the elevator doors slid open.

The hallway was empty as she headed for the far end towards Vince's office, now her office. It belonged to her now. She walked past her old, very small office knowing that she would never work in it again. Further along the hallway she walked past Paul's now empty office which brought a smile to her face again. Next, on the opposite side of the hallway was Stephanie's also empty office. Only the secretaries would be working which was the reason that Nikki had a stop to make in Stephanie's office. She walked in and without bothering with a greeting ordered, "Lucy I need you in my office later today. Let's say ten AM."

Lucy had looked up from her work at the sound of Nikki's voice, "Yes, of course Miss Bella. How is Mrs. McMahon? I heard she has been taken ill."

Nikki raised an eyebrow slightly, something else she had acquired from Stephanie, "I don't think Mrs. McMahon's personal problems are an appropriate topic, do you?"

"No, I'm sorry." Lucy said hastily, surprised by Nikki's abruptness. "Ten AM then."

Nikki gave a small nod and headed out of the office and then walked the rest of the short distance along the hallway to her office. She fixed a stern look on her face as the moment she had been waiting for most of all was at hand. As she entered she saw the old bitch who would very soon be out of a job sitting at her desk working. Nikki realised that she did not even know her name so she announced her presence by barking an order as she proceeded into her office, "Coffee, white, no sugar and be quick about it."

It was pleasing to see that the woman had obviously been dreading this as much as Nikki had been looking forward to it. Nikki thought that the old bat should have thought about that a lot sooner, when she was giving out those disapproving glances and thinking that she was superior. Nikki walked into her office and sat down behind her large desk. The chair that Vince had used was too big for her and it was not perfectly comfortable as the Chairwoman's chair should be. That would be a job for Lucy to get onto when she got her promotion later in the morning. She did not attempt to start any work, the first thing to deal with today was this old bitch and when she was out of here then work could begin. Nikki made sure that she studied the woman coldly as she returned a couple of minutes later with the coffee and set it on the desk in front of her. "What's your name?" Nikki said coldly.

"Wendy." The woman was obviously making an effort to try to look like she respected Nikki as she stood in front of the desk but they both knew otherwise.

Nikki smiled but there was nothing pleasant about it, "I want you do something for me Wendy."

"Of course."

The almost sadistic smile remained on Nikki's face, "I want you do give me that look of disapproval again."

"Excuse me?" Wendy's eyes narrowed a little.

"Do you have a hearing aid? Switch it on if you do. I said I want you to give me one of those disapproving looks again. Look at me as though I'm beneath you." Wendy clearly sensed where this was heading but she made no attempt to obey the order and Nikki's voice rose as she continued to barrage the woman in front of her, "Go on. Do it! Make it a really good one. Make it look like I'm a piece of shit that you just walked on. Go on! Do it! Now!"

Wendy did not give Nikki the satisfaction. "I knew this would happen. I quit."

"No you don't quit!" Nikki raged. "You're fired! Get out!"

Wendy stormed out and Nikki heard her mumble, "Bitch," which was actually satisfying. After relishing what she had just done for a few moments it was time to get to work. Nikki turned on her computer and then realised as it was booting up that she did not have the files that she needed to work on. They were still in her old office. Why had she not made Wendy fetch them before firing her? That was stupid, now she would have to go get them herself. She sighed as she got up and walked out of the office. The chair behind Wendy's desk was already empty which was worth a smile. Nikki headed back to her old office and closed the door. She spent a few minutes gathering the things that she needed to take back to her new much bigger, much more deserving office. This was where Nikki got lucky, big time lucky. As she opened the door to return she heard a man's voice from further down the hallway, "Where is Nikki Bella? We have a warrant for her arrest."

In that instant her life and everything she had worked for crashed and burned around her as her eyes widened and her mouth dropped open. She closed the door to the point where there was only a very tiny gap to listen through and she closed her eyes as she realised that Stephanie must have ratted her out to Paul. The stupid bitch! They were supposed to be family and this was what she had done? Fucking ungrateful bitch! All of the times that she had needed help and she had been there for her and this was what she got for it? Stephanie had obviously told Paul and that miserable bastard had dropped the dime on her!

Solicitation of murder, that was the charge they wanted to put on her. She had looked into it out of curiosity some time ago and knew that the penalty could be five years in jail. Her blood boiled at the thought of it. Stephanie wanted her to do five years for fucking helping her? Fucking stupid, ungrateful bitch!

As she listened through the crack in the doorway she felt her heart pounding and then she heard Lucy's clearly shocked voice, "Uh... she's in the next office, at the end of the hallway."

"Thank you."

Nikki realised that she had to forget anything about being the Chairwoman of WWE, what she had to do was get out of the building. Now. Run. But she could not panic. She put the files that she held in her left hand back on the desk and placed her cell phone on top of them. Nothing that was traceable was of any use to her now. She opened the door carefully and looked both ways along the hallway. Two uniformed police officers were walking into her office at the far end but they were the only people in sight and had their backs to her. When they vanished into her office Nikki moved quickly and in just a few seconds she was running down the stairs.


	48. Chapter 48

_It's incredible how Nikki got so lucky. The cops saw exactly what had happened later when they checked the footage from the cameras in the building and in the parking lot. She walked out of her office, dad's office and into her old one just moments before the cops came out of the elevator and they walked right past it, past her. Obviously they didn't know that she was in there. She must have overheard them asking about her or something, I don't know. They saw her stick her head out of the office and check the hallway was clear and then she ran for it. She ran down the stairs and out of the building. She didn't even bother to take her car, maybe she thought that if she did then the cops would be able to trace her or something. Maybe they can do that, how would I know? Anyway, she got out of the building and then just calmly walked up the street and disappeared from our CCTV. That's the last anyone has seen of her. They know that she withdrew a large amount of cash from an ATM nearby a few minutes later but since then there has been nothing._

_Those stupid cops must have wasted time checking the top floor of our building for her before they realised that she had made an escape already. __I don't know where Nikki went or what she did and I don't know what steps the cops take to find someone in a situation like that but whatever Nikki did and whatever the cops did ended with no one finding a trace of her anywhere._

_I've spoken with her sister and her parents and so have the cops but they insist that she has made no contact with them since that day. Maybe the cops even believe them. They've still had no luck tracing her anywhere, it's as though she vanished. I don't know for sure that she's still out there somewhere but I imagine that she is, I mean if she had killed herself or something then she would have been found by now, right? It scared me for a while as I thought that Nikki would blame me and she might show up and confront me over it but she didn't. She obviously knows that I told Paul as I was the only one who knew what she did. _

_Dad was heartbroken for a start when we told him everything, the poor thing. He really loved Nikki and he thought that she loved him too. Maybe in her own crazy way she actually did? Who knows what she was thinking or what her deal was the whole time she was with dad? Dad had lost mom and Nikki, the two women he loved in less than a year. He's managed to come to terms with it now though as it's obvious that we are all better off without Nikki in our lives._

_Things are not bad right now considering what we've all been through. Paul and I are back together and the marriage counselling worked wonders, at least it seemed to. We'll get there eventually, I know we will. __Paul is Acting Chairman of the company until I'm well enough to return which hopefully won't be much longer. It's been hard being away from the place, especially for this long. I really love my job._

_Things are great with the kids too..._

"I'm sorry but I need to stop you there Stephanie, I'm afraid we've run over time again and I have someone else to see this afternoon," the doctor's voice cut in. Stephanie really liked her, she looked to be in her late fifties and she had a very kind face and a soft voice. Also she was very good at her job, at least that was Stephanie's opinion. The progress she had made in her sessions seemed incredible to her. It was horrible to think back to the state she had been in on her first visit to this place but it also helped in a way as she could compare it to how she felt now and the difference was staggering.

"I'm happy with your progress and I'm happy that we have you on the right medication now," the doctor continued. "I think we'll stick with the Saturday and Wednesday appointments for another couple of weeks and then we'll think about reducing to one visit per week. How does that sound?"

"That sounds great," Stephanie smiled. "How long before I will be able to stop coming?"

"I think you have the wrong impression from your previous uh... experience. We might get down to one session every two weeks or something like that but I'm always going to want to see you."

"I'm going to need therapy for ever?" Stephanie sighed, looking down at the dark blue carpeted floor.

"Don't think of it as therapy," the doctor said reassuringly. "Think of it a check up. Just to make sure things are okay, as you do with your dentist."

Stephanie felt a lot better about it when she looked at it that way and she stood up from the couch. "Okay, I'll get going then. I'll see you on Wednesday Julie."

"You will," the doctor confirmed as she walked with Stephanie to the door. "Goodbye Stephanie."

Stephanie walked out of the room and saw her dad sitting in the waiting area as usual, waiting to take her home. As he stood and walked over to her Stephanie thought that her dad looked a lot older than he had a few months ago. Nikki had done a lot of damage to everyone in the family. As Vince reached where she was standing they hugged and Vince asked, "How was it today?"

They released each other and headed for the exit as Stephanie answered his question, "Good. I decided to talk through everything that happened with Nikki again today. We haven't done that for a few sessions."

"I'm sorry that I let her hurt you so badly," Vince told her sadly for what seemed like the millionth time. "I just didn't see what she was doing."

Stephanie took his hand as they walked and said gently, "I know dad, we've talked about it before and you don't have to keep apologising. None of us saw through her until the end."

They chatted throughout the long drive home and Vince was as delighted with his daughter's progress as she was. It had been a long and tough journey to get her to this point but the worst was definitely behind her. It helped that things were improving for her at home, Paul had stuck by Stephanie through everything and had made sure that they went to marriage counselling. They were now living together again and Vince admitted to himself that he could not have wished for a better son in law to take care of his daughter. If only they had left him to it months ago instead of letting Nikki worm her way in. At least Nikki was not a problem any more. Vince pulled his car up outside of Stephanie's house and she kissed him on the cheek and then got out. "Thanks dad, I love you."

"I love you too darling," Vince said. With that Stephanie closed the door and Vince drove away. Stephanie watched the car disappear as Vince made a left turn to head home and then she walked up the driveway to her front door. She suddenly felt tired and stressed, her sessions often left her feeling this way for a few hours. She realised that the doctor was right, she was making progress but she definitely still needed the help.

She unlocked the front and walked into the house. Immediately she noticed that the house was silent. She took off her coat and sighed as she hung it up. It felt good to be home. Just as she finished this she heard a quiet voice from the living room doorway. "Hey."

"Hey," Stephanie said quietly, smiling at the person who the voice belonged to.

"How did it go today?"

"Good thank you," Stephanie smiled.

"I have someone here who missed you."

Stephanie walked towards the living room, "Hello baby girl, mommy missed you so much today." She reached up and kissed her husband and then took what he was holding out to her; her sleeping baby daughter, Luisa. Stephanie gazed adoringly at her youngest child as she lay in her arms. "I love you." The words were equally directed at both her husband and her daughter.

END


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